A Heart Black as Ink, A Voice Sweet as Song
by The-Moon-Brained-Sister
Summary: A young girl finds herself pulled into an adventure of the darkest kind as her parents' mysterious deaths draw the attention of a certain black-hearted villain and his dog. Before she read aloud Kel Raeburne didn't know the truth, but soon it becomes all too clear what kind of monsters lurk in the night... A dark adventure story for those who want more of that ink-black world
1. A Journey Through the Night

Night had fallen, the streets were beginning to clear as people moved indoors, and the streetlights had just begun to come on when Kel stepped off campus. She sighed, resettling her backpack on her shoulders, and looked back at the brightly lit buildings behind her. Looking in the other direction, across the street, she saw dark trees and a narrow path snaking between the trunks, as well as an empty black car parked a little way down the road.

"Why did she have to pick this place?" Hunching her shoulders against the light wind that had just picked up, she crossed the deserted road and began her trek toward the house. She lived with her aunt, who taught at the college, in a small house set far back in the forest that marked the southern border of campus, so every Tuesday and Thursday found her walking alone through the dark trees after her classes ended. Kel hated the walk, and couldn't repress the shiver of fear that went through her every time she looked into the shadowy foliage to her right and left.

She always imagined she could hear animals rustling; growls and whines that she knew were in her head, so when she heard a twig snap somewhere in the trees behind her she told herself it was just her imagination. Then, when she heard a noise and turned to see the bushes rustling she was convinced it was the moon shining through the leaves above and playing tricks on her. But when she saw a large shape move out from behind a tree into the road she froze, her heart jumping into her throat as she recognized the shadowy figure of a man in the feeble moonlight.

For a moment her breath seemed to have left her, and all she could do was clench her trembling hands around her backpack straps as all of the slasher films she had ever watched flashed through her mind. Finally though, when the man didn't come any closer, she managed to squeak, "Who- who are you?"

The man chuckled, causing Kel to take a step back and tighten her grip, ready to run at a moment's notice, and stepped forward into a pool of light. Kel had a moment to take in his sharp features before he spoke, and when he did it was in a harsh, rasping voice like a cat's tongue.

"I work for someone who's very interested in your parents' deaths."

Kel sighed, relived at first that he wasn't some murderer cornering her in the woods, but also feeling the familiar surge of resentment that emerged every time her parents came up in conversation. "Look, I don't care if you're some monster hunter, or news station, or wildlife... person, but I'm not interested in answering your questions. My parents were killed having a picnic in the woods by a wild animal, probably a bear, and there's nothing else to say." Her words grew a little less rehearsed and more annoyed as she went on. "I don't know what your boss told you, or what stupid story he says he heard about them, but it was just a horrible accident. One I don't much like reliving, thanks!" She turned on her heel and was about to storm off the rest of the way to the house, when the man behind her said something that made her freeze in her tracks.

"They were reading a book on that picnic, weren't they?" There was a hint of a smile in his words, as though he knew something she didn't. "What was it?" Kel turned on the spot to stare at the man once more.

"What?" Her face had lost all of its color, and her mind raced as she wondered where the man could possibly have heard about... _that_. "I-I don't know, why would you ask that?" Could he know? Why would he be asking about that? No one had believed her, not even her aunt...

"Well the article said that your mother was reading a book when she and her husband were killed." The man was smiling now, and Kel didn't like the look in his eyes. "What was it?"

Kel was trembling now, her eyes never once leaving the face of the man who had just broken through her defenses so easily, and she licked her lips. "I- I don't know what-"

Before she could even finish the lie she stopped, her eyes going wide with terror at the sight of the shining blade that had appeared in the man's hand. She moved her foot towards the house, away from the madman in front of her, and screwed up her courage before slipping off her backpack and spinning around to sprint towards the faint light she could see through the trees.

_I just have to make it to the house,_ she thought. _He can't be that fast, and once I'm there I can find a knife, and I can lock the door, and-_ That was as far as she got. Before she had taken more than five steps away from the figure behind her two more men stepped out from behind the trees, and before she could slow down or dodge them the bigger of the two simply caught her in his arms and dragged her back to the first man, completely ignoring her frantic struggling.

It wasn't long before she was before the man again, her nose mere inches from his chest, and she flinched when he brought his knife up to her throat. Her arms were pinned behind her by the giant of a man who had caught her, but she leaned back as far as she could to get away from that shining blade until she could feel the giant's chest pressed against the back of her jacket. Still the knife stayed at her throat, and she started shaking.

"Who- who are you? Why do you care what they were reading? It was just a stupid book!" The man smirked.

"I thought you said you didn't know anything about it," he purred, noticing her guilty, terrified expression and savoring it for a moment.

The giant man behind her shifted impatiently. "How long is this going to take, Basta? Capricorn's waiting!" _Capricorn... Basta..._ Kel heard the strange names and connected them to the men, but all of her attention was still focused directly on the blade at her throat.

Basta growled. "Shut it! I don't need you telling me what to do!" With this he turned back to Kel, and she flinched as he leaned in close to her face. "So... Would you like to try telling me the truth this time, girl? As you can tell, we're on a bit of a tight schedule."

Kel trembled, trapped between Basta and the giant with her arms pinned and a sharp knife at her throat, and tried to work through the daze that had started to settle over her. As much as she wanted to pretend this was a dream, she knew she was awake and had to say something before Basta got tired of waiting.

"It was the Hobbit..." Her voice was so quiet she could barely hear herself. "They were reading about the Wargs. The giant evil wolves the goblins rode." She shuddered, a little girl once more staring down at the mangled bodies of her parents, and saw again the image stained with blood in the book still open in her mother's hand. It showed little men, one much littler than the rest, up a tree that was surrounded by vicious wolves that seemed to be carrying armored creatures on their backs. The wolves were enormous, as big as horses, and before Kel had run screaming back to the house she had heard a deep and wild howl rise up from the forest somewhere nearby.

Of course she had told people when she was a child, she had run to her neighbor's house covered with blood and screaming about the evil wolves that had eaten her parents. She had told the same story to her aunt when she had arrived and to the newspapers that interviewed her in the following months. Of course no one had believed her, and in time she had convinced herself that they really had been mauled by a bear, and that the book had nothing to do with their deaths. Despite all that, those wolves had haunted her dreams for years, and even when she grew older the Hobbit remained the one book she could never read.

Basta grinned, removing the knife from her neck before flipping it closed and slipping it in his pocket. "Good girl. That's all we needed to hear."

Kel felt a moment's relief. "Does that mean I can go? Please? I promise I won't press charges, I'll pretend it never happened, just please let me go." She began to feel worried, however, when the giant man still hadn't released her, and that worry grew when Basta's grin widened.

He shook his head as though he were disappointed in her. "I'm afraid I can't do that." He stepped back further and nodded to the giant man. "Sorry girl, but our orders are to bring you back with us. Flatnose, take her."

"What?! But I told you what you wanted to know! Why do you need me, what do you want? I'll answer all your questions, I promise, let me go, let me go!" Kel dug her heels into the ground, twisting back and forth, kicking and biting any place on Flatnose she could reach, and screamed when he simply threw her over his shoulder and began following Basta down the driveway.

They reached the road with little trouble, Flatnose appearing to not even feel her fists on his broad back, and Kel moaned when Basta opened one of the rear doors of the car she had noticed earlier on the side of the road. If only she had thought for a second about why there would be an empty car parked at the end of her driveway, maybe she could have avoided this entire situation.

She had nearly exhausted herself at this point, and didn't even have the strength to struggle when she was lowered from Flatnose's shoulder and onto the street. She did, however, try to bolt down the road and head for the bright intersection not even a half-mile away, but Flatnose merely reached out and grasped a clump of her hair in one meaty fist. She was wrenched backwards with a yelp of pain, and Flatnose's free hand immediately covered her mouth as she was bundled into the backseat of the car between Flatnose and the other man who had stepped out of the woods with him.

Now that Kel could get a better look at him, she could see that the other man was really a boy, younger than she was by a few years, and she was stunned. Why was he with these men? He couldn't have been more than fifteen, and here he was assisting with a kidnapping.

It was at that moment that Basta settled himself behind the wheel in the front seat, glancing at Kel in the rearview mirror and flashing her a smirk.

"Comfortable, sweetheart?" Kel merely glared at him, but shrank into an even smaller ball as she became more aware of Flatnose pressed against one side and the young boy on her other. Flatnose's shoulders were so broad he took up one and a half of the three seats in the back, and Kel was left with half a seat in which to squeeze herself. It was the first time in her life she was glad to be five foot seven and skinny.

Basta started up the car, and Kel felt tears gather in her eyes as she watched her driveway begin moving away as they accelerated. "Why are you doing this?!" she sobbed, tearing her eyes away from the dark trees and instead focusing her pleading gaze on Basta. "What could I possibly have that you want?" Basta twitched, and Kel saw his eyes widen in surprise.

"You mean you don't know?" He glanced back at her in the mirror, saw her confused expression, and burst out laughing. "Oh, that is just too perfect! You don't even know what you are! Capricorn is going to love this! It isn't every day that you get to completely destroy someone's life."

Flatnose chuckled, and Kel could feel the laughter rumbling in his chest. "I just hope she is what he thinks she is. He'd be furious if it turned out this was all for nothing."

Kel noticed that Basta looked worried for a moment, but then he caught her eye and grinned. "Well it wouldn't be such a huge loss, would it? She's a pretty little thing, and we are one maid short since Resa escaped. I'm sure she would be a welcome... addition."

Kel felt her stomach clench in fear at his words, but also felt disbelief and anger rear up inside her. "What the hell are you talking about? A maid? What kind of place are you taking me to?!" She saw the houses moving past the car as they speed through the countryside, and realized exactly how serious her situation was. "You're acting like I'm just going to stay there, wherever you're taking me, and I won't! My aunt will be looking for me, and the police will find you and get me back and they'll throw you in prison for kidnapping!"

Flatnose glared down at her and she quailed slightly, but then forced herself to sit up straight. "And even if they can't find you, I'll find a way to get out." Her voice sounded much braver than Kel felt, and her heart sank when Basta's smile widened.

"You think we're going to give you that chance? No, girl, you're never going home. Best you understand that now." At that moment his eyes narrowed, and though his gaze remained on the road Kel can tell his attention was focused on her. "And you mentioned your aunt? Ah, yes, she teaches at your college. Such a nice woman, I happened to bump into her today before we came to get you."

Kel's blood ran cold. "W- what? What did you do to her?!" Her voice cracked, and her hands were gripping the seat so tightly she could feel the springs beneath her fingers.

Basta chuckled. "Oh, nothing, I just asked her the time and left. See, I wanted to be able to recognize her later, if I ever have to ... visit her again."

Kel's hands clenched, and she felt her throat tighten with the tears that were threatening to spill out. "No, please... Please don't hurt her. I- I'll go with you, just- don't do anything to her, please..." Basta waited a moment, savoring the terror on Kel's face before focusing again on the road.

"You see, Sean? Everyone has something they care about. A dog, an aunt, children... All of them are tools that can be used against them." Kel wondered for a moment who he was talking to, but then felt the boy beside her nodding eagerly.

"Yeah, I get it," she heard him say, and felt her stomach twist in disgust.

"So you're brainwashing children in this place, too? How can you do this? Does anybody know about your little... camp, or wherever it is you live? Why don't the police stop you?"

Basta chuckled. "You people have such faith in your justice system." He looked into Kel's eyes for a moment, and she trembled at the twisted humor that she saw there. "But think about this: don't police officers have families too?"

Kel's eyes widened, and she felt her stomach sink down to her toes. So there really wouldn't be anyone coming. How many men must this Capricorn have to pose such a threat against the police? And to sink so low as to threaten innocent children in order to keep their parents in line... She shuddered. She decided she was not looking forward to meeting Capricorn at all, and didn't speak again for the rest of the ride.

They continued on for close to an hour, and Kel began to wonder if they would ever reach their destination. She had been watching the black landscape flashing past the car this entire time, but still had no idea where they were. They had left the major roads behind them long ago, and were instead climbing into a hilly region set further back in the darkness and bumping along on rutted dirt roads without so much as a signpost. However, just when she was beginning to drift off into sleep, she noticed an old sign with the symbol of the freemasons on it as they turned down a narrow driveway.

She blinked blearily, surprised at herself. How could she have been about to fall asleep in this situation? She shook her head in an attempt to clear some of the cobwebs from her mind, and looked up in time to see a clearing with one large building set back on the far side.

They were pulling into a makeshift parking lot on the left hand side of the clearing that had about six cars in it, and she was happy to see that the entire compound was lit with flood lights stationed around the perimeter. As Basta shut off the engine and stepped out of the car, Kel scanned the rest of the compound.

The cleared area was about three hundred feet square, and most of it was empty space in the center of a ring of buildings. There were no fences around the buildings that she could see, but the woods formed a natural barrier with their tangles of briars and thorns. The largest building was built like a meeting hall, and Kel connected the freemason signpost with the abandoned road and realized that the building must have belonged to a charter of the freemasons which had disbanded, but never bothered to tear down the clubhouse that they had built far from any town to give them their privacy. There were a few shabby barracks right beside the parking lot that looked like they'd been built in a hurry, and on the opposite side were a few houses with fenced in gardens in front of them.

_They must belong to the higher-ranked men_, Kel thought, but at that moment Basta yanked open the rear door and Flatnose heaved himself out of the car. He took a moment to stretch and Kel grimaced when she heard a series of pops and cracks as he flexed his knees and arms. Suddenly Flatnose reached back into the car and grabbed her left arm with one huge hand, and Kel yelped in surprise when she was yanked out of the car to stand beside him. She swayed on her feet, feeling the blood rushing back to her brain after so long sitting down, and staggered when her vision went black for a moment. Flatnose kept his grip on her arm, ignoring her discomfort and instead beginning to drag her towards the massive hall that loomed over the courtyard. As she regained her senses she was able to walk on her own, but when tried to tug her arm out of Flatnose's grip he merely tightened it leveled a glare at her.

"Don't struggle, girl, or I'll have to carry you again." From this distance and under the lights Kel could now see where Flatnose got his name. It was as if a giant had taken his thumb and pressed in Flatnose's features, leaving him with a squashed appearance like a pug, and she shrank away in revulsion. She also saw the outfits of the men for the first time, and observed that they were all wearing black jackets over black shirts over black pants except for Basta. He was the only one wearing a white shirt underneath his jacket, and Kel supposed that made him the top man.

She tugged harder. "I can walk by myself, thanks. Just let me go! It's not like I can run anywhere when I don't know where I am." She also eyed the shotgun slung over Flatnose's shoulder, knowing that she would never be able to get out of range in time.

Basta chose that moment to step forward, walking on Kel's right side and leering down at her. "How can we be sure? People do all kinds of stupid things when they're scared." Kel's eyes narrowed, and she memorized Basta's pointed features so she could hopefully identify him later.

"Stupid things like this?" She snarled, and stomped on one of Flatnose's large feet. He howled in pain, and when Kel felt his grip loosen she yanked her arm free and turned to run back towards the road. Basta lunged in front of her, his features dark with anger, but she snapped her leg out in a wild kick and managed to land a solid blow on the outside of his knee. Now it was his turn to roar with pain as Kel sprinted on, but her joy was short-lived as Sean, the wiry fifteen-year-old, appeared and wrapped his arms around her middle. Though she kicked and flailed wildly, the boy was at least four inches taller than she was and pretty strong for his age, and it wasn't long before Basta had recovered and limped over to her.

He was breathing heavily, his teeth gritted in pain as he rested his weight on his uninjured leg, and he reached out to grab a handful of Kel's hair in his hand. She cried out when he dragged her towards him, freeing her from the boy's clutches, and felt tears of pain well up when he shook her back and forth like a naughty puppy.

"Yes," he snarled, fury dripping from every word. "Stupid things like THAT!" As he gritted out the last word he pushed her face into the dirt, putting his good knee to the ground and leaning down to look her in the eyes. "You ever hit me again, girl, and I'll beat you so bad you won't walk for a week." Kel whimpered, and he smiled wickedly. "I'm being generous. You pull that kind of stunt with Capricorn, and he'll cut off your leg to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Groaning in pain, Basta got to his feet and brushed off his pants with his free hand, gripping Kel's arm and dragging her up with the other. She was sniffling, both from pain and humiliation, and reached up to brush the dirt off her face as they began moving toward the hall again. By this time Flatnose had reached them, and Kel was satisfied to see that he winced every time he put weight on the foot she had stomped on. She flinched, however, when he leveled a glare in her direction before turning to Basta.

"You should have given me a chance at her," he growled, and Kel shrank away from him in fear. "I would have taught her some respect." Basta smirked, yanking on Kel's arm and making her stumble.

"Maybe next time. Even if she is a Silvertongue, you don't need your legs to read." Flatnose chuckled in agreement, and jammed the butt of his shotgun between Kel's shoulder blades with a smirk. She lurched forward, gasping for air, and suddenly found herself in the shadow of the hall.

Basta reached around her, his hand still closed on her arm, and pushed open the door, and Kel felt her heart leap into her throat as musty air washed over her face. She almost closed her eyes, wishing that she was back home in her living room with a cup of hot chocolate doing her homework, but forced herself to stand up straight and square her shoulders as she was led into the hall.

The first thing she noticed was the color of the walls. Only two of the walls were painted, but they were a deep blood red that gave Kel chills and reminded her of the mouth of some sort of beast. The other two were just whitewashed, but there were ladders and rollers that suggested that the painters were simply taking a break. There was also a fireplace in the left hand wall, and a crackling fire spit sparks into the air with small pops as it chewed through the logs in the braziers. Next she looked at the far end of the hall, set against the back wall, and saw a large chair raised on a dais which was being polished by three women in dark dresses. _Maids!_ She thought, stunned. _They weren't kidding! Oh god, what's going to happen to me?_

She was really sweating now, recalling the glances from Basta and Flatnose and their knowing smirks, and felt a little bit of panic bubbling up in her stomach. But before she could get too worried, she heard Basta speak.

"Cockerell! Where's Capricorn?! We've got his little reader!" He shook Kel a bit as he said this, and she turned to look at the man Basta had spoken to.

She saw a man of medium height with bright orange hair on the other side of the room, and as he moved towards them she noticed that he walked with a pronounced limp. His face was grim, but he managed a small smirk as he looked Kel over and she blushed. She knew exactly what he was thinking, and knew that both Basta and Flatnose had probably thought the same, but refused to look away from his dark eyes for a second. He noticed, his expression changing to one of surprise, and took a second look at her.

"She's brave, for a girl," he said. He glanced down at Basta's leg, which was lifted off the ground slightly and clearly still causing him pain, and his smile widened. "I noticed you limping, Basta. Did this little girl get the better of you?" He saw Flatnose wince. "And you too, Flatnose?! Well, well, I'll be happy to tell Capricorn how much trouble a helpless girl gave you two."

Basta gritted his teeth, and only Kel saw the red flush that spread along the back of his neck. "Never you mind! I'd like to see you deal with this hellion, but speaking of limping..." He shot a meaningful glance at Cockerell's crippled leg and smirked. Cockerell growled, but Basta ignored him. "Enough of this! Where's Capricorn?"

Cockerell muttered mutinously for a moment. "I oughta report you... He's out at the sheds interrogating our 'guest'. He's been out there for hours, but I haven't heard any screaming for a little while now." Kel's face went white at his words, but Basta didn't seem to notice and merely snorted.

"Well what does he expect to get out of that scribbler? Telling those lies about us, helping the girl and her father escape, we should just kill him now and be done with it. I'd do it myself if I could." He fingered the outline of his knife in the pocket of his jacket lovingly. "Of course I'd carve a few more wrinkles into his face first, make a proper job of it."

Kel shuddered, inching as far away from Basta as she could get with her arm still in his grasp. This time he noticed her discomfort and dragged her close to his side, so close she could feel the heat of his body in sharp contrast to the crisp night air wafting through the open door of the hall, and leered down at her through hooded eyes. "What's wrong, sweetheart? Don't like dangerous men?" Kel flinched, hunching her shoulders and lowering her head, and tried to make herself as small as possible.

Cockerell snorted. "You scare all the girls, Basta. All except for Resa, but she didn't like you anyway, did she?" He laughed when Basta took a swing at him and limped out of the hall, presumably to fetch Capricorn. Basta, clearly stung by the comment about Resa, glared at the closed doors of the hall for a moment after Cockerell had left.

Eventually though, he shook his head and muttered something about people who don't know their place before dragging Kel to the center of the building. There they stood, waiting, and it was as though the world was holding its breath. A shadow had fallen over the hall, and Kel shivered. She could feel Basta's hand on her arm and his body against her side, and from the occasional smirks she saw on his face he was relishing the contact. She felt like a prize on display in the middle of the floor, but all she could do was squeeze her eyes tightly shut and wait for Capricorn, whoever he was, to arrive.


	2. Colorless as a Glass of Milk

It was ten minutes before footsteps and voices began to approach outside the hall, and as soon as she heard them Kel's eyes shot open in alarm. All of her fear came rushing back, not that it had ever really left, and she watched the twin doors as her stomach tied itself into knots. The handle turned, it started to move inwards, and then it was flung open all the way. Cockerell came shuffling in and returned to whatever he had been doing, and then as Kel looked back at the doorway she got her first look at Capricorn.

He wasn't like she had imagined, at least not in terms of looks. She had been picturing some sort of dark villain, maybe with thick black hair and a goatee, but the man before her was quite different. He was pale, in all meanings of the word. Fair hair, pale skin, and nearly colorless eyes gave Capricorn the appearance of a very solid ghost, and the only color Kel saw on him was his dark red suit and the two rings on his right hand. She cringed inside when she realized his suit was the exact same shade as the walls of his hall, the color of fresh blood, but didn't have time for any more observations before Capricorn reached her.

As Capricorn approached them Basta released Kel's arm, but she remained where she was, frozen by fear. Those pale, cold eyes stared at her dispassionately, as though she were some small creature ready for dissection, and Kel knew that in that moment that there was no way she was escaping this place. This was not a careless man, and not someone who would allow even the slightest mistake to be made concerning her captivity. He looked at her the same way she would look at an interesting animal in a zoo, though without the childlike wonder and with an added attitude of ownership. She was just a possession to this man, an intriguing possession perhaps, but still under his authority and subject to his desires.

She felt tears gathering again, much to her humiliation, and blinked them furiously away so that Capricorn wouldn't see them. She knew he noticed, however, and a smirk curved his oddly feminine lips as he reached out towards her face. She moved backwards instinctively, trying to escape the grasping hand, but Capricorn was quicker. He took her chin in his fingers, lifting her head until she was standing up straight and looking into his eyes, and then turned it from side to side as though examining a horse he had just purchased.

"She's younger than I expected," he said, his voice dry as snake skin and without a bit of kindness. Kel shivered and tried to pull her chin away, but Capricorn just tightened his grip and continued to examine her. "How old is she?"

"I'm t- twenty-two." Kel winced when she heard the tremor in her voice, but was proud of herself for having managed to say anything at all with so much terror coursing through her. Capricorn clearly thought so too, because his expression changed to one of mild surprise.

"She reminds me a little of Silvertongue's daughter. That same spirit, though apparently she's old enough to realize just how much danger she's in." He smiled then, the first smile Kel had seen on his face, and it terrified her even more. There was no warmth in that smile, just a dark and twisted humor gained from her fear, and Kel couldn't stop herself from whimpering. Capricorn's smile widened. "Yes, definitely old enough to know, and that's why she'll behave so much better than Silvertongue's daughter did, isn't that right? Especially since there's no fire-eater here to help her escape and no father to rescue her from the devils in the hills."

Kel drew a little hope from the knowledge that someone had escaped from this hellhole, but not much. Because Capricorn was right. There was no one here to help her, and no one outside who could possibly find her. Even if her aunt went to the police they would only reach dead ends, afraid of what Capricorn would do to their families or friends or homes if they challenged him.

"Basta?" Kel flinched at the sound of Capricorn's voice, wishing he would let go of her so she could move away and hopefully hide somewhere very small where he couldn't find her.

"Yes?" Basta replied, and Kel would have smirked at the pathetic eagerness to please that she heard in his voice had she not been so terrified.

"Go and fetch Darius. Tell him to find a good choice for our little guest." As Basta hurried away to do what he was told, Capricorn looked down at Kel once more. She tried to meet his gaze, but couldn't take staring into his ice cold eyes any longer and looked away, feeling a flush spread over her cheeks at her cowardice.

She tried to tug her head away and release herself from his grip, but Capricorn merely tightened his fingers and held her in place. Kel tugged again, and when he continued to hold firm she reached up to push his hand aside. Despite her fear, she was determined to find out why she was being held here.

"Why-" the word had barely left her mouth when Capricorn pulled back his hand and slapped her across the face. She staggered back, raising a hand to her stinging cheek, and looked up at Capricorn in shock and pain. He glared down at her, cold fury in every line of his face, and pulled a handkerchief out of one of the pockets in his suit.

"No one touches me without my permission," he said, wiping off his hand as though Kel had left some sort of disgusting substance on it. "Do it again, and I'll cut off one of your fingers." With this he moved towards his chair, and Flatnose stepped up behind and took hold of her arm once more. Kel hiccupped, feeling tears spilling down her cheeks as she watched Capricorn brush away the three women who had been polishing his chair. Each of them hurried away, hunched over as though trying to hide from Capricorn's view as he settled into his throne, and Kel felt a clenching in her stomach as she realized that that could be her soon, cringing at every sharp movement for fear of being hit and bowing and scraping to serve Capricorn and his men to avoid mistreatment.

Capricorn motioned to Flatnose, gesturing him forward, and Kel felt herself half-pulled and half-led to the dais where Capricorn was now seated. She shrank away as they came closer, all too aware of the throbbing handprint on her face, but they stopped just before the raised portion of floor. Kel could feel Capricorn's gaze on her even though she was too afraid to meet his eyes, and she flinched when he spoke.

"Now that you've hopefully learned some manners, you're going to tell me whatever I want to know." Kel was trembling from her head to the tips of her toes, but managed to speak.

"B- but, why am I here? What could I possibly-" Capricorn motioned with his hand, and Flatnose cuffed Kel on the back of the head so hard she saw stars. She cried out and hunched her shoulders against further blows. None came, but she stayed stooped over anyway and was shivering harder than ever as Capricorn leaned forward.

"I am asking the questions here, girl." His tone was ice cold with fury. "And the first thing I want to know is: are you a Silvertongue?"

Kel, terrified of speaking out of turn, shook her head. When Capricorn's eyes narrowed, however, she tried to defend herself. "I don't know what that is, I'm sorry, I-" She saw the gesture that time and knew what was coming, but still yelped as Flatnose's hand came down on her head again. She blinked, dazed, and slumped down to the floor, shaking her head in an attempt to clear it. She saw Flatnose reach down to grab her, but was surprised when Capricorn shook his head and motioned for Flatnose to back away. Instead, he stepped down from his throne and walked towards Kel, stopping a few feet before her and staring down at her slumped form.

"You really don't know, do you?" Kel managed to raise her head and look him in the eyes, blinking a few times to clear her blurry vision, and sniffed.

"No, please, I don't know anything." Kel shook her head, her hands flat on the floor to hold herself upright, and was surprised to see Capricorn's lips curl in a smile.

"Well," he said. "Isn't that interesting. I believe this is going to be fun after all." Kel, who had mostly recovered at this point and had gotten shakily to her feet, felt a chill run down her spine at his words. "It's not every day I get to rip away every one of a person's illusions at once."

Kel simply shook her head, tired and hurt and groggy and just sick of this entire experience, and swayed on her feet. "And how exactly are you going to do that?" she asked, too exhausted to even be afraid anymore.

Capricorn looked at her curiously, raising his eyebrows when he noticed her lack of fear, and laced his hands together behind his back. "Tell me. Have you ever read a book aloud?"

Kel blinked, startled out of her fatigue by the sudden change of subject, and hesitated before shaking her head. "No. My aunt said that books should be read alone, and if you read them to someone else the experience isn't yours anymore. She said the only reason to read a book out loud is if you're a teacher or have kids or..." Kel realized she was babbling, and noticed with some trepidation that her anxiety had begun to return. She could once again feel the fear building in her gut as she looked into Capricorn's eyes, and it merely grew when his smile widened.

"Well, well, well. Interesting..." He raised one hand to his lips and traced them slowly, his eyes never leaving Kel. "I believe this venture just became more... promising." Kel shrank away from him, seeing ownership once more shining in his eyes, and blushed as he looked her up and down as if seeing the rest of her for the first time. "Perhaps cleaning won't be the only thing you're good for after all."

Kel blanched, hearing Flatnose chuckle behind her, but Capricorn noticed her expression and smirked. "No, no, not in that way." His gaze flickered to Flatnose, still standing behind her. "Although I really couldn't care less what happens to you as long as you can still read, and we haven't had many new faces here in a while, so maybe that isn't such an idle fear."

Kel stiffened her spine, about to tell him that she would never let that happen and ask what reading had to do with anything, when the doors swung open behind her for the third time. She spun around and saw Basta walk into the hall with another man that Kel assumed had to be Darius.

Her first impression of the man was that of a bug, a bug with long, gangly arms and legs and huge eyes as a result of the large round glasses he had on his nose. The bridge was covered with scotch tape, as though it had been broken many times, and he kept pausing to slide the glasses up the bridge of his nose. Every time he did so Basta would push him forward with the butt of his gun, causing him to stumble and nearly drop the book that he carried in his arms. Kel felt sympathy for the poor man, knowing that she may soon be in his position, but was still horrified when Darius bowed shakily in Capricorn's direction before hurrying up to Kel.

_I'm never going to bow to him_, she thought venomously. _Never_.

"You must be the girl," he said, looking at her with sadness tinged with what appeared to be admiration as he handed her the book. "I'm sorry about this, but I tried to find a book with nice creatures in it, one where nothing bad could come out. Not that I would wish anyone else into this place, but..." he trailed off, wringing his hands helplessly, and stepped back when Capricorn sat back down in his chair and motioned him away.

Kel looked down at the book in her hands. It was a collection of fairy tales, the kind of happy stories you tell your children before they go to bed, and she opened up the front cover to admire the beautiful illustrations inside. She had a moment to take in the fairies and flowers curling up the sides of the pages before Capricorn's voice broke through her reverie.

"Go on," he said, not even blinking as he watched Kel. "Read it aloud."

Kel hesitated. "Will you let me go if I do?" It was a frail hope, but one that she had to follow.

Capricorn smiled slowly. "No. No, I will not. Why would I get rid of a perfectly good pair of hands that could work for me, especially when the body and mind they're attached to have so much information that could be used to expose my village?"

Kel, though she had known it was coming, felt her heart sink. She saw Capricorn's smug face, saw him sitting in his chair like some sort of lord ruling over her life and Darius' life and those of the women who worked for him, and felt rage boil up inside her. "Then I won't read anything," she said, her face set and ready for whatever pain was about to come. "I'll never read you a word unless you take me home." There was a heavy pause as Kel hunched her shoulders, watching Capricorn's face darken.

"And what about your aunt?" Capricorn looked smug as he saw Kel's face grow pale. "I'm sure you wouldn't want me to send Basta to pay her a visit."

It felt as though a lead weight had been dropped into her stomach, but Kel swallowed and continued on as bravely as she could with Capricorn staring down at her. "If you do anything to her you'll never hear me read. Ever. If she's hurt I will make sure I never read a word of a book aloud for the rest of my life. I mean it." Kel winced at how weak her voice sounded, pleading instead of forceful and determined, but was satisfied to see Capricorn's mouth twist into a scowl.

He stood up, but although Kel was prepared for him to hit her he merely walked past, moving instead toward the fireplace and picking up a metal rod that had been lying with one end in the burning coals. She saw him shake it off and lift it to his face, admiring the cherry red symbol glowing like the fire burning beside him before turning back to Kel.

He gestured to Basta who stepped forward and, taking Kel by the arm, dragged her over to the fireplace. She was forced to her knees, and Capricorn lowered the red hot poker until the burning end was mere inches from her face. The heat made her eyes water, and her stomach clenched at the sight of the symbol before her.

"Do you know what this means?" Capricorn asked, and Kel swallowed before responding.

"It means-" she paused. "It's a zodiac symbol. For Capricorn. The goat." Capricorn smiled, the kind of smile Kel imagined a snake would wear before it ate a mouse, and moved the poker away to rest at his side.

"That's right. And do know what this poker is for?" His tone was deceptively soft, and Kel's face drained of all its color.

She gulped. "For- for-" She couldn't continue, her throat was too tight and her mouth was too dry with fear to respond. So Capricorn answered for her.

"It's for stubborn girls who refuse to do what I tell them, who try to tell me what to do in my domain, and who make idle threats that they know they cannot keep." With every word Capricorn had been bringing the symbol closer to Kel's leg, until it was nearly touching her thigh. She trembled in terror, her eyes wide, and could feel the waves of heat through her pants as it came closer and closer.

"Please," she whispered. "Please don't-"

Capricorn smiled, holding the poker where it was, and looked down at Kel's ashen face. "Now then. Are you ready to read? Or do I have to show you what happens to those who refuse me?"

Kel tried as hard as she could to remain silent, shaking from the effort it took, but when the hot iron moved closer to her leg she cried out, "All right! I'll do it! Just get that away from me, please!"

She exhaled when the poker was removed from her sight and replaced in the fire, and nearly cried in relief when Basta lifted her to her feet and pressed the book back into her hands. Capricorn folded his hand behind his back once more and stared at Kel impassively.

"Now," he said, thinly veiled impatience in his tone, "read the book."

Kel opened the cover, scanned the stories, and picked one of her favorites. "Beauty and the Beast," she said, and then took a deep breath before beginning to read.

It was the strangest and most wonderful experience of her life. It was almost as though the book were reading _her_, and not the other way around, and the words seemed to spill from her lips like water. She barely knew what she was reading, only through flashes of color and sound that swirled through her mind, and yet the story was more real to her than it had ever been before. She could feel Belle's love for her family, her father's sadness, her sisters' jealousy and hatred, as though she were temporarily becoming each of the characters in turn as she read out their lines. Nothing she had done her entire life could compare to those precious moments in the hall, and she knew they would stay with her forever.

It was as though she had been reading for an eternity, though she had only made it through the first few pages when she felt a curious tugging sensation deep inside her and noticed something floating to the ground. _Passing through an arbor of roses, he remembered Beauty's request to him, and gathered a branch on which there were several..._ Kel paused in her reading and stared at the floor in amazement. There, as fresh as though it had just been picked, lay a branch of roses. In fact, dew was still sparkling on their petals when Kel reached down to lift them from the floor. However, before she could even touch them, Basta yanked her back and let Capricorn past. He reached down and picked up the branch, greed shining in his eyes, and looked at Kel with a smug and satisfied smile.

"Well," he said, laying the roses on the mantle above the fire where they shone bright red in the light. "It appears my hunch was correct." He moved over to Kel, who was still standing frozen with the book in her hands, and startled her by reaching out to brush a few strands of hair from her face.

She stumbled back, closing the book and clutching it to her chest, and couldn't drag her eyes away from the roses. "W- what just happened? What the hell just happened?!" She felt her world crumbling, the rules that had governed her life for so long falling apart beneath her, and struggled to make sense of what she had just seen.

"You, like your mother, are a Silvertongue." Capricorn's voice was matter-of-fact, dry and unyielding, but as Kel shook her head in disbelief she heard a hint of satisfaction and amusement in his tone. "You have the power to pull people and objects out of books and into this world. Your mother's gift got her killed, while yours delivered you into my possession." There it was again, that terrible look that made her feel like so much meat on display, that reduced her to nothing more than an interesting or useful pet. "What happened," Capricorn concluded with a chilling smile, "is you just became mine forever."

With that his smile disappeared. "But first you need to be taught a lesson in obedience. Basta! Put her on her knees and hold her!"

Basta hesitated, looking at Kel with something akin to pity, before moving forward with a grimace that confused her. He then grabbed her by the wrists before forcing her to the ground, and Kel watched with growing horror as Capricorn moved towards the fire and lifted the hot poker out of the coals once again.

"No," she pleaded, twisting in Basta's grip until Flatnose came over and grabbed her by the shoulders, but knew that her pleas were falling on deaf ears. Capricorn stepped up behind her, the rod in his hand, and nodded at Flatnose.

"Bare her shoulders," he said, and Kel could hear the sadistic glee in his voice. She could also see Darius start forward to help her before Cockerell pressed a gun in his back, and felt a small flame of hope at the knowledge that there was at least one person in the village who would be willing to help her escape. Just then she felt Flatnose take hold of the back of her t-shirt, ripping it right down the middle so that her entire back was bared to the cold night air swirling through the hall.

"Hold her down, Basta. Don't let her move." Kel saw Basta's scowl deepen, and he hesitated before pressing her face first into the floor and leaning all of his weight on her upper arms, leaving her splayed across the floor in a sick parody of a bow. She felt Capricorn place one booted foot on her lower back, pressing her hips down so she couldn't even struggle, and she felt her stomach clench with fear.

She shivered, but began to panic when she felt the heat of the poker approaching her back. She craned her head around to see what Capricorn was doing, and sobbed when she saw him moving the glowing symbol towards her left shoulder. "No, please, please don't do this! No please! Please stop, I promise I won't argue again!" Still the iron came closer, and Kel struggled to squirm away in order to avoid the burning brand that drew nearer every second.

Capricorn chuckled, and Kel could tell that the symbol was hovering perhaps an inch from the skin of her shoulder. She could feel the heat, the terrible searing heat that was nearly burning her skin already. "I know you won't," Capricorn said, "because every time you look in the mirror you will see this brand and remember what happens when you disobey." With that he thrust, pressing the red hot iron to her skin with a sizzle that could be heard throughout the hall, and Kel let out a piercing scream.


	3. Lessons Learned

It was more pain than she had thought possible, as though there were insects eating their way through her skin, or someone had dumped acid on her, and she felt Basta grip her upper arms more tightly to keep her from flailing in agony. Her mouth was open in an unending scream of agony, her throat turning raw and sore. She could smell her own flesh burning, acrid and smoky, and would have gagged had she not been in so much pain.

Finally, after what felt like hours, Capricorn removed the brand from her back, and she saw out of the corner of her eye that there were charred pieces of skin hanging from it. This time she did gag but managed to hold it down, unable to make herself rise when Basta stepped away and instead sobbing into the hardwood floor beneath her. She gritted her teeth against the agony, the bone deep ache that throbbed through her entire shoulder, and barely noticed when Capricorn motioned for one of the serving girls who had been hanging around in the kitchen attached to the back of the hall.

The girl hurried over with a jar of some sort of salve, greasy and black, and proceeded to rub it into the burn on Kel's back while Capricorn handed the brand to Flatnose, who replaced it in the fire. Kel cried out as the burn stung, and Capricorn looked down at her in satisfaction. He still had one foot on her back, preventing her from moving from that spot, and she shuddered before letting out another huge sob.

"Hopefully now you've learned your lesson, girl," he said, turning his pitiless gaze to rest on her. "That salve has black powder in it, and will ensure that the scar will be with you for the rest of your life, as black as the ink words you're going to read for me for as long as I wish it. Basta, take her to my house and put her in Resa's old room. Have one of the maids assigned to her to make sure there are no complications." Capricorn glanced down at Kel and finally removed his boot, allowing her to curl up on her side and clutch the remains of her shirt to her chest, still sobbing into the floor. "We wouldn't want our brand new reader dying on us, now would we?"

Through the haze of pain Kel heard Capricorn's last words, and felt white hot rage burning deep inside her as she watched him walk away through her tears. That was it. No gloating, no smirking, no taunting; even insults would have been preferable to the complete indifference Capricorn had just shown. He had just caused her more pain than she had ever felt in her life, and then simply walked away as though finishing a particularly boring conversation. It was terrible, knowing that you meant so little to the person who had control over whether you lived or died. Kel knew that the only way she would ever be able to retain control over her fate was through her strange ability, and decided that no matter how much pain Capricorn inflicted on her, there had to be some way she could use his dependence on her to her advantage.

She sensed, rather than saw, the maid step away from her back, and the next thing she felt was Basta's hand around her right arm lifting her to her feet. She winced as the raw skin around her new permanent 'tattoo' tugged sharply, and was surprised when Basta slowed his movements to allow her time to adjust. She glanced at his face out of the corner of her eye and saw for a moment a hint of resentment tugging at the corners of his lips, drawing them down into a tight grimace as he determinedly avoided her gaze. Was he feeling anger towards her branding? Could there possibly be a heart beneath all that posturing and villainy? Was it all just a front for some hurt from his own past?

Kel shook her head inwardly at her stupidity. It didn't matter whether Basta cared or not. He was Capricorn's man through and through, and had proven that when he held her still while she was branded. There was no help to be found in that direction, so she would have to focus on more attainable goals.

Like that other reader, Darius, Kel thought as she was led out of the hall and into the cold night air. She shivered, hugging her arms tighter around her ribcage in an attempt to keep her shirt on in the light breeze. He definitely sympathized with her plight, but clearly wasn't a person she could depend on for feats of bravery or ingenious plans, considering the fact that he was still trapped in the village after who knew how many years. She would just have to work with what she had, maybe talk to some of the maids and find a way to pass messages to Darius. Or even that man Capricorn had been torturing before she arrived. Obviously he wasn't in league with Capricorn either, but she had no idea where he was kept or what condition he was in. He could be crippled, or possibly crazy after so long trapped here.

Kel sighed, feeling hopelessness threatening to set in and overwhelm her. This whole situation was just too crazy, too bizarre, and she hadn't even begun to think about the strange power she had demonstrated in the hall. How had she never known about it before? Had her aunt known? Why hadn't she told her? What-? Kel shook her head as tears gathered in her eyes and panic started to set in. She had to stop asking herself these questions that had no answers; they would only drive her crazy. She shivered again, feeling goose-bumps rising on her skin, and jumped when Basta let go of her arm and shook off his jacket. She debated running while he was distracted, but the floodlights covering the compound with light didn't exactly create an atmosphere conducive to escapes and there were guards posted outside every building and clustered around the road.

Suddenly Kel felt Basta's coat settle around her shoulders, surrounding her with warmth left over from his body. Of course she tugged it tight around her, savoring the relief from the cold breeze, but glanced at Basta with suspicion. He noticed and glared right back at her.

"What are you looking at, princess? I'm not allowed to have a heart?" Kel flinched, turning her gaze to the ground, and started shuffling forward once more when Basta took hold of her arm and continued leading her to the largest house.

"Well it's not like you gave much indication of one before," she muttered, loud enough for him to hear, and inhaled sharply as the fabric of Basta's jacket rubbed against her burn. It now felt like an extraordinarily bad sunburn, throbbing like a second heartbeat, and Kel resisted the urge to press her hand against it to stop the ache. Instead she clenched her hands into fists around the jacket, pressing her nails deep into the fabric to distract herself from the burning, itching sensation on her back. "As evidenced by the fact that you just held me down while I was branded like an animal," she snarled, and saw Basta's jaw clench as he gritted his teeth.

He snorted and looked away, his gaze focused on the lit windows of Capricorn's house. "I don't have to explain myself to you. You'll learn how things work around here once you've been here a few days, and maybe by then you'll have smartened up and learned to keep your pretty little mouth shut."

Kel stiffened her shoulders under Basta's jacket, tears spilling down onto her cheeks. She tried to be strong, but just couldn't stop herself. "I don't want to be here for another minute, much less days! I just want to go home and go back to school and see my aunt and-" she broke off, sobbing, stumbling a little as her vision blurred. "Why is this happening to me? Why did you do this to me? I don't- I can't-" She had to stop, her throat closing up as the tears came faster, and barely noticed when they finally reached the front door of the giant house near the hall.

Basta knocked on the door, his hand still clenched around Kel's arm, and didn't say anything in response to her questions. Soon the door was opened by a tall woman with beady black eyes and hair pulled back into a severe bun at the nape of her neck, and she looked over the two of them like they were so much garbage. Her dark eyes, the quick, twitchy way she moved, and her sharp pointed nose all reminded Kel of some sort of bird, like a raven or a magpie.

"So this is the girl? Doesn't look like much, and she's pretty scrawny for twenty-two." Basta stiffened.

"How d'you know how old she is?" he asked, reaching for the small pouch hanging around his neck.

The woman let out a harsh laugh, eyeing Basta with disdain. "I didn't read your mind, if that's what you're worried about," she sneered. "I have eyes and ears all over this place, and you would do well to remember that."

Basta glared at her, gritting his teeth, but shook his head and stayed silent. "Capricorn wants the girl put in Resa's old room, and he told me to stay with her to make sure her burn heals all right." he said, daring the woman to question him.

Kel frowned, wiping away the tears on her face, and looked at Basta in confusion. Why was he lying about Capricorn's orders? Capricorn had told him to fetch one of the maids to stay with her, so why was he offering to do it himself? Deciding not to question it, she stared resolutely down at her feet until the woman finally stepped aside.

"All right," she said with a glare, "go up then, and get her settled. But no wandering off to find any of the other girls. You may be Capricorn's favorite dog right now, but I will be here long after you're dead and buried in the hills and as housekeeper it's my job to keep riffraff like you away from the maids."

Basta growled as he pulled Kel into the house. "For your information, I wasn't going to do anything. I follow Capricorn's orders, Mortola, just like you should." With that he drew Kel up the nearest staircase, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Mortola following the two of them with intense dislike stamped on her face.

Kel shuddered, turning away. Something about that magpie woman struck her as dangerous, more so even than Basta, and she was glad to leave her behind. She turned her attention instead to the house around her, and trudged up the stairs behind Basta with his jacket still clutched around her. Her tears had dried at that point, and as they reached the landing Kel took a deep breath and attempted to calm her raging emotions. Her hurt and fear and hopelessness were obviously still there, but she somehow managed to push them to the back of her mind with a small sniffle until she had the time to deal with them.

Basta noticed her sadness and looked down at with a smirk. "Cheer up, sweetheart," he said, stopping her in front of a plain wooden door and fitting a key into the lock. "You're Capricorn's guest of honor! Be grateful you're not sitting in the sheds or sleeping in the barracks with the men." He eyed her up and down and his smirk widened. "You wouldn't be lonely there, that's for sure!"

Kel blushed bright red, and could feel the tips of her ears burning at the thoughts she was sure were running through Basta's head. However, she remembered his pitifully eager tone back in the hall and somehow managed to look up at him with a smirk of her own. "I suppose I don't like being kept by him as much as some. Does he make you lick his boots clean too?"

Basta froze, the door half open, and Kel saw his muscles clench through the shirt stretched tight against his shoulders. He turned back to her, a thunderous expression on his face, and grabbed her by the collar of his jacket before yanking her into the room and slamming the door shut with his foot. He pulled her close, until they were staring straight into each other's eyes. "What did you just say?!" he snarled, and Kel could smell freshly chewed peppermint leaves on his breath as he shook her back and forth. "How dare you?! I happen to be Capricorn's right-hand man, you little witch, and he respects me! He accepts me! You'd do well to remember that, or I'll see you get worse than a burn on your back!"

He pushed Kel onto the bed against the far wall before she could respond and stomped into the hallway, turning back to her with a murderous glare. "I'm gonna get you some food and medicine, girl, so don't try to escape. Remember what I said before about Capricorn cutting off your leg, cause I can promise you he'd do it without a second thought if you tried to run." Kel cringed, knowing that he was telling the truth. "Just stay put like a good girl, and maybe I'll overlook your insults and NOT punish you when I get back."

With that he left, locking the door behind him and leaving Kel alone in the dim room with nothing but his coat for company. She stared at the door for a few seconds, hardly able to believe that she had said those things and gotten away with them, baffled by the momentary bravery that had risen up and lashed out at Basta. She threw his coat away, leaving it crumpled on the floor, since she was no longer cold and couldn't stand wearing something of his for any longer. She stood up and stumbled over to the dresser, pulling out one of the drawers in the hopes of finding a shirt she could use to replace her now ruined t-shirt.

With every movement she winced, feeling her tender flesh stretched tight around the burn as it swelled, but gritted her teeth and allowed the pain to focus her thoughts. She used it to control her anger, direct it towards the two men she considered directly responsible for her misery: Capricorn and Basta. _The master and his dog_, she thought with a sarcastic smirk, continuing to dig until her fingers encountered the soft white fabric of a loose-fitting peasant shirt. It was thin, but not quite threadbare, and she slipped off her own torn shirt with a sigh of relief. She had just let it flutter to the floor and was about pull on the new top when the door flew open and Basta walked in with a large tray.

"Mortola says Capricorn wants only the best for you, little witch. Fresh meat, potatoes, beans, the best of the-" He stopped, catching sight of Kel in her bra and jeans. She had frozen the moment the door had swung open, and now stared at Basta as a blush spread like wildfire over her cheeks and neck. She lifted the shirt to her chest and stumbled back a few feet, starting to sweat when Basta stepped into the room and put down the tray before closing the door behind him.

His lips twisted upwards in a grin as he looked Kel up and down. "Well, well, well, look what we have here," he murmured, taking a step closer to her. "This little witch isn't so little, are you? No, you're all grown up, not like that little girl we had here before." Kel whimpered, struggling to fit her arms into the shirt while keeping it held in front of her body, and stumbled away from Basta until her back was nearly pressed against the wall. Basta noticed her frantic attempts and chuckled, stepping right up close to her and taking the fabric in his hands. Kel tugged at it, but to no avail, and shrieked when he jerked the shirt out of her grip. She pulled her arms in close, crossing them in front of herself, and looked up into Basta's face as he shook out the garment.

"Now then," he said, still speaking quietly as though trying to calm an animal and still with the same smirk on his face. "How about I help you with that, princess?" Kel shook her head, terrified, but when she tried to lean away she accidently brushed her branded skin against the wall.

"Aaahh!" she screamed, falling to the floor with a sob, and reached up as though to protect her burned shoulder from any more agony. She hunched herself over and gasped, the new pain radiating from her back nearly too much to bear, and heard Basta curse and walk over to his tray. There was the sound of sloshing water, and then he returned to her side with a dripping towel.

"Turn around," he growled, and Kel was in too much pain to argue. She spun on the spot, her knees pressed to the smooth floor, and nearly sobbed with relief when a cool wet towel was placed over her burn. She could hear Basta muttering behind her back, but ignored him and instead just closed her eyes, enjoying the reprieve from the hot burning sensation that had been plaguing her ever since she was burned.

After a few moments Basta removed the cloth, getting to his feet with a groan and walking back to the tray. "You're more trouble than you're worth, you know that?" Kel could hear the clinking of small bottles as Basta rummaged through the contents of the tray, and she struggled to her feet. Leaning her weight against the dresser, she watched as Basta turned back to her with a jar of clear liquid and a new dry cloth in his hands, and saw his gaze once more travel over her exposed skin. She blushed, looking around for the shirt Basta had taken from her, but before she could get it Basta moved forward and forced her to sit on the edge of the bed.

'No use putting anything on, girl," he muttered, sitting down and turning towards her as he tipped the contents of the bottle over the cloth in his hand. "I need to get to your back, and I can't do that if you're wearing a shirt." Kel heard him chuckle though, and stiffened when he put the bottle on the floor and leaned in close. "Not that I'm complaining," he murmured in her ear, and Kel's blush deepened until she was sure she must be glowing red.

Thankfully he moved back after a moment, lifting the cloth instead and dabbing it on her burn. Kel hissed, feeling a sharp burning sensation that most likely came from hydrogen peroxide, but forced herself to relax as Basta brushed the cloth against her shoulder in small downward strokes. She simply sat there while he ministered to her burn, feeling awkward and uncomfortable, and found herself wishing he had called a maid like Capricorn had told him to. She wanted someone to talk to, someone who might sympathize with her plight, but had to admit that Basta was being remarkably gentle as he cleaned out her wound.

Finally the cloth was taken away, and Kel sighed with relief. Basta went to the tray once more, and this time Kel saw him pick up a jar of what looked like the same salve the maid had smeared on her back right after she had been burned as well as a large bandage. He walked back over to her, settling himself down on the bed once more, and unscrewed the lid of the jar. He dipped his fingers in the black paste, pulling out a good-sized amount, and reaching up to slather it all over Kel's brand. This time Kel couldn't help but stiffen as Basta's fingers worked it into her tender flesh, and she bit her lip in an attempt to hold back the tears she knew were threatening to spill out.

It took only a moment before he was done, and then he picked up the bandage, laid it over her burn, and taped it down with a roll of clear medical tape he pulled out of his pocket. Once that was done Kel let out a sigh of relief, but didn't have even a second to relax before Basta's hands wrapped around her waist. His touch made goose bumps rise on her skin, and she shivered when he leaned in close behind her and inhaled deeply. "Come on, princess," he murmured, "give me a little kiss. That can be your thank you to me for taking care of your back."

"No! Let go of me!" Kel shouted, standing up and spinning around to face him. She stumbled over to the tray with a plate of warm food still on it, picked up the shirt that Basta had left on the table, and began to pull it on. However she barely got one arm into the shirt before her movements stretched the skin around her burn and she had to stop, gritting her teeth in pain. She saw Basta get up from the bed with a smirk.

"Need some help, princess?" He asked, and took hold of the shoulders of the shirt. Kel growled at him, still smarting over that move he had made on her, but allowed him to lift the top over her head and lower it down over her.

"There," she snapped, stepping away as soon as the shirt was on. "You've helped, are you happy?"

Basta smirked. "Oh, very happy, sweetheart. It's been a long while since any new women came here, and you are a sight for sore eyes." He ignored Kel's outraged spluttering, instead walking over to the tray and pushing the plate of food into her hands. "Here, eat up. Capricorn wants you healthy in case he needs you to read for him soon, and I would suggest doing what Capricorn says." Kel glared, but took the plate anyway.

'I'm not going to read for him," she said stubbornly, starting to shovel food into her mouth. She moaned. "Mmm, this is good. Oh, god."

Basta stepped back and leaned against the door, crossing his arms in front of his chest and watching Kel eat. "Oh, you'll read. Unless you want more of what you got today, and I'm sure you don't."

Kel ignored him. "I don't care, I won't give him anything he wants. Who knows what kinds of things he'd have me get for him?" Kel suppressed a burp, looking down at her empty plate in surprise. How had she finished it that quickly? "Anyway, I'm still not convinced I actually read those flowers out of a _book_," she said, meeting Basta's eyes for the first time. She heard him snort.

"Then how did they get there? You think we're pretending to think you have some sort of witchy gift to pull things out of the world they belong in and drop them in this one? What would be the point of that?" Kel shook her head.

"I don't know, but anything makes more sense than this! Kidnappings, torture, magic powers, it's almost like this whole village belongs in a book!" She fell silent, stopped by the knowing grin that crossed Basta's face. He pulled out his knife and began cleaning his fingernails. "No," she said, shaking her head. "No way, that's- That's impossible!"

Basta winked at her. "Nothing's impossible, princess."

Kel gaped at him, her mouth wide open in shock, and blinked a couple of times to try and clear her mind. "So-" she paused, clearing her throat. "Which- which of you are from a- a book?"

Basta waited a moment before answering, inspecting his nails for any stray dirt before flipping his knife closed and slipping it back into his pocket. "Not many, actually. Capricorn and I were the first, along with that miserable fire-eater, and we were read out fourteen years ago. Cockerell and Flatnose were read out later by Darius, but he's useless at it. He's the reason Cockerell's got his limp, and Flatnose owes him for his face." Basta grinned. "That's why Capricorn spent so long looking for another Silvertongue, since Darius is hopeless and the man who read us out disappeared not long ago with his little daughter and his sister-in-law."

His smile turned to a glower. "We still haven't been able to find him, even though he somehow managed to set the police on us. It got so hot at the old village that we had to fly across the ocean and make a new base here." He shuddered, crossing himself. "If I never have to get on one of those flying metal monsters again it'll be too soon."

Kel smirked, but managed to bite back the scathing comment that sprang to the tip of her tongue. Instead she filed away two new pieces of information. It was possible to get the police to go after Capricorn, and Basta was extremely superstitious. Both of these tidbits could turn out to be useful if she figured out how to turn them to her advantage, but unfortunately she had no idea how to do that.

Basta paused, turning to look at Kel. "So what's your story, princess? What were you before we found you?"

Kel paused, surprised by his question. She swallowed, pushing back the tears that threatened to spill out as she thought of her aunt. "What do you care?" she snarled, fixing Basta with a glare. "You keep telling me that life's over, so what's the point in reliving it? And even if I wanted to remember it, what makes you think I would ever tell you? You're the one who ripped it all away from me!" She sobbed, putting her head in her hands, and heard Basta let out an exasperated sigh.

"Don't you ever stop crying?" he growled, moving forward to lift her chin so that she was looking up at him. Kel sniffled, wiping away her tears with the back of her hand and avoiding Basta's eyes.

"Well maybe if you hadn't kidnapped me I wouldn't be crying so much!" She was ashamed at how easily her tears were spilling out, however. Before all of this had happened she had imagined what she would do if she was ever in danger, and she had always told herself she would be brave and strong and stand up against the villains without crying or showing fear. _Well I've blown that right out of the water,_ she thought, shaking her head at her own stupidity. _One look from Capricorn and I turn into a cowering little kid, and as soon as Basta whips out his knife I'm too scared to speak. Not really the trademarks of a hero..._

Basta chuckled, bringing her back to the conversation they were having. "I was just following orders, sweetheart. If you want to be mad at anyone, it should be Capricorn." He winked at her. "Although I would suggest not letting him know that, since it may not go over so well." He finally released Kel's chin, instead reaching over and grabbing a wooden chair that had been sitting off to the side. He dragged it over and planted himself down, sitting right in front of Kel with their knees practically touching. "So," he said, "tell me who you are. Do I need a reason for wanting to know?"

Kel's shoulders sagged. It seemed like there was no way around it. "Fine," she gritted out, glaring daggers at Basta. "If you really want to know so badly."

Basta smirked. "Oh, I do. After all, I'll be sitting here all night making sure nothing happens to you, so I might as well know a little about who I'm guarding."

Kel nearly fell over. "What?! You're going to be here all night?!" She was furious. "Are you telling me you're going to be sitting in that chair all night long staring at me? How am I supposed to sleep?"

Basta's smile widened. "Oh, I'm sure you'll find a way. And even if you don't..." He winked at her. "We could just keep each other awake."

Kel's mouth snapped closed at that, and she felt her face burning as she looked away. She cleared her throat, uncomfortably aware of how much Basta seemed to be enjoying her embarrassment. "So anyway, you, ah... You wanted to- to know about my life?" She stammered as quickly as she could, trying desperately to steer the conversation onto safer ground. She heard Basta chuckle and pressed on.

"Well, ah... I'm a- a student. At the college near my house. I'm studying... Well, I'm kind of studying whatever I want, since I haven't decided on a major yet, but that's fine, it just means I get to take whatever classes I want. And my aunt's a teacher at the college, so I get free tuition and a whole bunch of scholarships that pay for books and fees and all that." Kel knew she was babbling, and tried to rein herself in. "I'm taking classes on ancient Japan, the way suns and planets are formed, classical English literature, and a couple of art classes on the side. I'm pretty much just filling all of my core requirements until I know what I want to study, and-"

Basta put a hand on her lips and she stopped, staring at him like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. "I don't care about any of this school stuff. That doesn't matter here, since there aren't any teachers and I doubt Capricorn's gonna get you any textbooks." He laughed, as though the very idea was ridiculous. "I want to know about you. Your life." He pulled out his knife and flicked it open, making Kel's heart stop dead. However, he merely began polishing it on his shirt, seeming totally absorbed in his task. "You're going to be here a while, it wouldn't hurt to indulge your new master's right-hand man every once and a while. If I feel like it, I may be able to make your life more comfortable." He looked up with a smirk. "Who knows, I may start to grow on you."

Kel let out a derisive snort before she could stop herself, and gasped when Basta's knife flew to her throat. He leaned in close to her, his teeth bared in a scowl. "What was that?" he snarled, pressing the knife against the skin of Kel's neck and eliciting a whimper.

"N- nothing," she whispered, feeling the sharp edge of the blade and knowing one wrong move could leave her bleeding. "I'm sorry, it just- it just slipped out." She began to tremble, her eyes wide and focused on Basta's arm that was holding the knife, and nearly sobbed with relief when Basta pulled it back and continued to polish it as though nothing had happened. Kel knew better though, noticing the harsh set of his jaw and how tight the muscles in his arms were.

"That's what I thought," he growled, not meeting her eyes. "So as I was saying, if I decide you're worth it I might be able to get you some of the things you want. No books, we can't have you reading out any monsters to come after us, but clothes or jewelry or even foods from town." He looked up from his knife for a moment. "I might even be able to let you see your aunt."

"What?" Kel gasped, leaning forward. "How? How could you-"

Basta chuckled, going back to his polishing. "I would be with you the whole time, of course. I'd be a new friend, or another student, or-" he flashed her a mischievous grin. "A new lover?" Kel ground her teeth together at the thought, glaring at Basta through her lashes, but took another look at his knife and restrained herself from commenting. "So are you going to continue? Or do I have to-" he held up his knife with a twisted smile, "-persuade you?"

Kel gulped. "Okay, okay." She took a deep breath before swinging her legs onto the bed. She scooted herself back until she could lean against the wall and pulled her knees up to her chest. "I- I've lived with my aunt since I was eight. Since-" she paused for moment, closing her eyes. "Since my parents died. She brought me up, got a teaching job at the college, and basically became my second mother. She taught me how to read, she taught me to ride a bike, she got me my first pet..." Kel's shoulders shook. "I miss her so much..." She managed to hold back her tears this time, and instead turned angrily to Basta. "Why did you come after me?! How did you know about my parents? Why was I so DAMNED important that you had to rip away everything I love?!"

Basta smirked, not even bothering to look up from his knife when he answered her. "Why were you important? 'Cause of your gift, sweetheart, what else?"

Kel scowled, more confused than ever. "Yeah, but how could you have known? No one knew! _I_ didn't even know! I had never even read a book aloud before!"

Basta finally looked at her, his smile widening as he put his knife away. "You have Capricorn to thank for that, and Silvertongue's daughter as well. She read something out by accident while she was our 'guest', and Capricorn realized that the gift could be passed through families. When we moved here he started looking for other Silvertongues in newspapers. It was just luck that he found the article about your parents that mentioned their strange deaths and a book. We were sent after you on a guess, but you're lucky you have the gift." He winked at her. "Otherwise you would probably have been given to one of the men as a- 'companion' until they got tired of you."

Kel's eyes widened, and her lower lip started to quiver. So that's how they had found her. Dumb luck. Stupid dumb luck and nothing else. If Capricorn hadn't set up base so close to her town, then maybe none of this would have happened, and she would have grown up entirely unaware of her gift. "So that's it," she murmured, hanging her head and letting her hair fall around her face. "It was just luck. There was nothing I could have done..." She shook her head in disbelief.

At that Basta stood, groaning as he stretched. "Afraid not, sweetheart. Capricorn would have found you no matter what, and now that he has you're not going anywhere." He smirked down at her. "Better get some sleep, you want to be well rested for whatever Capricorn has planned for you tomorrow."

Kel turned away with a snort, sliding herself under the rough covers of the bed beneath her and facing the far wall. "As if. I told you, I'm not going to read for him, no matter what he does to me. You can tell your master in the morning that I'm never reading again!" She started to pull the covers up around her face, but shrieked when Basta's hand landed on her shoulder.

He flipped her onto her back, his knife out once more and glinting in the light of the oil lamp beside Kel's bed, and snarled, "I've had just about enough of your attitude, princess, and I think it's time you learned what happens to girls who won't do what they're told!" He brought his knife up to Kel's face and when she opened her mouth he muffled her scream with one hand.

Kel writhed on the bed, kicking and flailing, but her legs were trapped under the covers and Basta was too close for her to reach between them and push him away. She felt the knife pressed against her cheek, cold and sharp, and tears spilled from her eyes. Basta's hand tightened around the blade, but just before he pulled it downwards she saw him pause. Her eyes met his, and they were so close that she could see straight into their midnight blue depths, so dark they were almost black. There was a flicker of uncertainty, just for a moment, and Kel gasped in relief when Basta drew away the knife and put it back in his pocket. He frowned, as if he himself were unsure why he had shown mercy, and as though trying to make up for it he removed his hand from Kel's mouth and hit her across the face.

"And let that be a lesson to you," Basta growled, but Kel could hear the uncertainty in his voice as he tried to justify his own actions.

She twitched, wincing at the sharp pain, and raised a trembling hand to her reddening cheek. She met Basta's gaze, her expression puzzled as she examined his sudden show of humanity, but Basta stood up and turned away, picking up his chair and carrying it over to the door. He set it down right in front of the doorway, facing the bed, and Kel saw him pause and shake his head before falling into the chair.

Kel watched him for a little longer, feeling her cheeks redden as he continued to stare at her, but eventually her eyes started to feel heavy and she began to yawn. She tried to stay awake by focusing on Basta's face as the lantern light dimmed, but as soon as her head hit the pillow she felt herself slipping away. The last thing she saw before darkness overtook her was Basta, his face half hidden in shadow, watching her from across the room.


	4. An Old Friend

It was the bright sunlight shining through her window that woke Kel in the morning, and she sat up groggily. She could feel a dull pain radiating from both the side of her face and her shoulder, and she moaned. Putting a hand to her head, she looked around in confusion, taking in the strange room and unfamiliar bed as her mind attempted to catch up with the events of the night before. However, before long everything came rushing back; her kidnapping, her subsequent torture, and all of the events right up to her current situation, and Kel felt tears once more gathering in her eyes. She hadn't thought it possible for her to have any tears left, but somehow they just kept coming. She lifted her knees to her chin and buried her face between them, wrapping her arms around her shins and curling up as small as she could. The burn on her shoulder chose that moment to start throbbing more painfully, and she whimpered as it gave a particularly nasty twinge.

For what felt like hours she simply sat there and cried, rocking back and forth and trying to believe that somehow things were going to be okay, imagining that her aunt would somehow find her and rescue her from Capricorn and his black jackets before she had to read anything else out of a book. All she wanted was to go home and forget this ever happened, and never read aloud for the rest of her life. Just then Kel heard the door to her room swing open with a creak and heard a voice groan from the doorway.

"Didn't I already tell you to stop crying?" Kel looked up, sniffling and wiping her eyes, and was surprised to feel a sense of relief at the sight of Basta standing there holding another tray of food. His was the most familiar face in the village, and despite his actions in the hall Kel could tell he regretted her branding and felt guilty for being part of it. While she still hated him for what he had let Capricorn do, she somehow trusted him to show a little humanity when no one else in this godforsaken village would. She watched as he stepped into the room and set the tray of food on the table beside the door, closing the door behind him with a click and sitting down in his chair. "Well?" he said. "Don't you want to eat? This isn't all for me, you know."

Kel glared at Basta before climbing out of bed and walking over to the tray of food, and nearly started salivating at the sight of the eggs, bacon and toast piled onto each of the plates. She snatched one of them up, keeping a wary eye on Basta as she did so, and scuttled back to her bed to eat. She heard Basta sigh as he picked up his plate, and Kel looked up from her food just long enough to see him hold back a huge yawn. She smirked inwardly at the thought of the sleepless night Basta had spent sitting in his wooden chair, and felt a small surge of satisfaction from knowing that she had indirectly caused it.

"So," Basta said, almost startling Kel into dropping her fork. "We're gonna go on a little trip today, you and I." Kel looked up at him warily, her cheeks stuffed full to bursting with food.

"Where's that?" she asked thickly, draining the glass of water on the table to wash down her meal. "Let me guess: the dungeons? A medieval torture chamber hidden under the hall?"

Basta smirked, leaning back in his chair and setting aside his half-finished plate. "No, princess, even better. I'm going to show you firsthand what happens to people who cross Capricorn. Today you're going to meet Fenoglio."

Kel crossed her arms over her chest, squinting at Basta in confusion but feeling a little tingle of unease at his threatening tone. "Who's Fenoglio?" she asked, rolling the strange name on her tongue like she would an interesting candy.

"He's that old man Cockerell mentioned last night, the one Capricorn had been 'visiting' before we arrived," Basta said, his smile widening, and Kel shuddered as she recalled Cockerell saying the man had been screaming. "Capricorn wants you to see the scribbler so you'll know what happens to those who betray him, who tell stupid lies about us and help prisoners escape." Kel thrust out her jaw, looking obstinately into the corner and avoiding Basta's gaze.

"And if I say no?"

Basta smirked, walking over and grabbing Kel's upper arm in a grip like a vice. Kel flinched when Basta drew out a pair of heavy manacles and clamped them around her wrists and let out a little cry when she was yanked to her feet, but managed to prevent herself from struggling when she saw Basta's knife hanging from his belt. He smirked, leaning down until his face was right up next to hers. "I don't really have to explain, do I princess?" Kel flushed with embarrassment and looked away, and Basta chuckled as he led her out through the open door and into the hallway. "Maybe you really are learning how things work around here. For your sake, I hope the lessons stick." Kel flinched, following him down the stairs and trying to ignore the feeling of his hand gripping her arm. She could hear the chains linking her wrists rattling with every step, and could have kicked herself for acting like such a scared little kid.

But she couldn't help it. Here, surrounded by all of these men with their guns and knives, lorded over by Capricorn and his housekeeper, she might as well be a child. She had already learned that rebellion would get her nothing but pain, and there was little else she could do to change her fate unless she found some way to get past the guards and escape. At that moment Basta led her out of the house and into the sunlight, and as she squinted around she realized with a heavy heart that escape was beginning to seem more and more like an empty dream. The men milling around the compound seemed to have doubled since last night, and she now saw the crude guard towers stationed at the four corners of the little village.

Every one of the men had a gun slung around their shoulders, some with rifles and others with shotguns, and Kel shuddered when a few of them sent wolf whistles her way or openly gave her lewd once-overs. She ducked her head to avoid their gazes, but that didn't let her block out their words.

"Hey Basta, that's a pretty little thing you got there!" Kel flinched, letting her hair fall around her face and wishing Basta would walk faster. "Why don't you bring her round to the barracks sometime? I could show her a good time!" Kel gasped, feeling her throat constrict as she remembered Capricorn's words from the night before. _I really couldn't care less what happens to you as long as you can still read_. She knew that there was nothing protecting her right now except Basta's presence and the fact that all of the men besides Flatnose and Cockerell thought that she was off limits. She was Capricorn's new reader, after all. None of the men would do anything to her as long as they thought she was protected. She just had to find some way to keep them away, or... She closed her eyes. It didn't bear thinking about.

Just then Cockerell stepped out of the hall to their left. Kel shuddered, hunching her shoulders and praying that he wouldn't notice them, but felt her stomach clench when his gaze fell on her. He limped over, a grin twisting his face as he looked Kel up and down. "She's even prettier in the light, Basta. Nice catch." Kel was sickened when she saw him lick his lips as he stared at her, and she felt Basta's grip tighten around her arm when Cockerell approached. "You know girl, I have my own house on the edge of the village if you ever want a change of scenery." He looked her over once more, his grin morphing into a cruel leer. "Or even if you don't want one. I'm sure Capricorn wouldn't refuse me a night with his new reader." He reached out a hand as if to stroke her face, and Kel stumbled backwards as far as she could before Basta's grip stopped her in her tracks. Cockerell laughed, retracting his hand. "Looks like she's still a little skittish, Basta." With one quick movement he reached out and grabbed a handful of Kel's hair, dragging her closer and leering into her face. "Good. I like it when they're scared."

Kel's breath nearly stopped, and it was all she could do to keep from retching. As it was, she simply stared at Cockerell in terror until Basta yanked her out of Cockerell's grip and back to his side. "Leave her alone, Cockerell. Boss's orders are that she's not to be disturbed until she's done healing. I'm taking her to the sheds to see Fenoglio and then back to Capricorn's house." With that he shoved his face right into Cockerell's, and Kel was surprised to see that his teeth were clenched with anger. "And you'd best not pull a stunt like that again unless you want some steel in your belly. Got it?"

Cockerell glowered at Basta, but eventually turned away with a snort. "Whatever you say, _boss_. But I'll be petitioning Capricorn as soon as she's in good condition, and then we'll see what your threats will do." Before he walked away, Kel saw Cockerell wink at her over his shoulder. "Until then, girl."

With that he limped back toward the hall, whistling, with his hands in his pockets, and Kel felt her stomach slowly unclench. She clutched Basta's sleeve, grasping at any kind of security she could find, and was shocked to feel Basta's other hand move to grip her shoulder in an almost protective way. He glared at Cockerell's retreating figure for a moment longer and then shook himself, releasing Kel's shoulder and tugging her over to the run-down building in the corner of the compound. As they moved into its shadow Kel shuddered, the metallic smell of dried blood and the stench of human urine growing stronger as they approached.

Kel resisted the urge to cover her nose, but only just, and nearly staggered when they walked through the entrance. The sour smell doubled as soon as they passed through the dark opening, and the only light in the building came from a line of naked light bulbs hanging from the ceiling and swaying ominously from their wires. Kel squinted through the dim stable, trying to inhale as little as possible, and saw that the majority of the stalls were empty and the doors hung open like gaping mouths. Finally, at the far end of the stable, in the very last stall, Kel could hear soft sounds, like someone shifting in their sleep, and low painful moans. She shivered, and Basta smiled down at her.

"Afraid? You should be. This old man's caused us a world of trouble, and if there's one thing Capricorn hates, it's trouble. In fact," he said, "you could almost say it's because of him that you're even in this mess. If he hadn't helped Silvertongue and his daughter escape, they never would have been able to set the cops on us and we never would have moved so close to your little town." Kel twitched as Basta leaned in close to her, and felt a shudder steal through her as he whispered in her ear. "Keep that in mind."

Kel remained silent, avoiding Basta's gaze as they continued down the hallway. She hissed in pain when her shoulder twinged, and saw Basta look back to see her grimace. He chuckled and held her still, one hand gripping her chin and forcing her to look into his face.

"You're making an awful fuss about that burn, princess. You think that's bad? Wait until he gets angry; then we'll really get to hear you scream." Basta smirked, clearly not so protective of her anymore.

"Go to hell," Kel snarled, taking a step away from Basta and glaring daggers at him. Basta chuckled, pulling Kel the final few feet to the occupied stall.

"We're already there, princess. We're the 'devils in the hills', remember? Now, say hello to Fenoglio." He made a grand sweeping gesture, but when Kel moved to approach the door of the stall he took hold of her arm once more. "Not too close, girl. You just need to see him, and understand exactly what the consequences are for further disobedience."

Kel scowled at him, but felt a pit of icy fear develop in her stomach as she took a few steps closer to the large window fitted with vertical metal bars. It was almost pitch black in the stall, since there were no windows to the outside, and the light filtering in from the hallway didn't amount to much, so all she could make out was what looked like a pile of rags in the corner. There was a bucket in the other corner that she assumed accounted for the smell, and the floor was bare wood with horrible dark stains covering it. She shuddered, and jumped a little when the frail little pile of rags moaned and rolled over into the light.

When she looked down at the figure again and managed to peer through the gloom, she let out a horrified gasp. The man on the floor couldn't have been less than sixty years old, nearly her grandparents' age, with thick grey hair that was matted and tangled around his gaunt face. His eyes were closed, and every breath he took rattled and gurgled as though it were being torn from his body. She covered her mouth with one hand, trying not to retch at the sight of the many bleeding wounds that had been cut into the man's bare back, as well as the numerous burns and bruises that covered the rest of his skin. She felt her knees nearly buckle beneath her, bile rising up in her throat, but managed to hold it back. She was barely able to look at the pathetic creature lying mere feet away, and Kel doubted if he even knew she and Basta were there, he was so far gone in pain and despair.

"How's it going, scribbler?" Basta sneered from the doorway, and Kel felt him lean over her and look through the window with a twisted smile on his face. "Enjoying your stay?" There was no response from the old man, and Kel bit back a whimper as she clutched the bars in a white-knuckled grip. She wanted so desperately to help him, to reach out and let him know that he wasn't alone in the village anymore, and suddenly the burn on her shoulder seemed utterly insignificant when faced with this poor man's suffering.

However, before she could even open her mouth, Basta reached out and yanked her away from the cell. "Okay girl, that's enough time with the scribbler. I need to get you back to the house, before Capricorn decides he needs you."

Kel stumbled away from the bars in a daze, unable to erase the image of the bright red scabs that had littered Fenoglio's back, and allowed herself to be led away without so much as a word of complaint. She was numb, unable to comprehend the kind of evil who could inflict such pain on a harmless old man, and as she was led back down the dark hallway she felt a thrill of fear. She realized that even after the events of last night, after meeting Capricorn and staring into his empty, pitiless eyes, she had still foolishly assumed that there were limits to the tortures even he would exact on her. She wouldn't make that mistake again.

Kel staggered as they stepped out of the stable, blinking in the bright afternoon sunlight, and stumbled after Basta with leaden feet. Her fear of the night before had crystallized into something deeper, something primal and instinctive that made every muscle in her body tense whenever Capricorn's name was mentioned. She pulled her arms into her chest, the frigid chains chilling her through the loose cotton shirt she was wearing, and Basta glanced over.

"Cold, princess?" He tightened his grip on her arm, drawing her in close beside him, and Kel went stiff as a board. She didn't want to touch anyone, she didn't want to feel anything, she just wanted to curl up and pretend she was home, where everything made sense and magic was only something you read about in stories. Where bad luck was missing a class and evil was a teacher who gave too much homework.

"No," she snarled, wrenching herself out of his grip. "I'm not cold, I'm sick of this whole goddam village! I hate feeling scared and trapped, and being harassed by every man who walks by, and having to see beaten old men, and I REALLY hate being treated like an animal and branded like some madman's property!" Kel was almost foaming at the mouth at this point, anger erasing all of her despair in a fiery blaze. "I am not taking another step toward that house, and I will NOT be reading anything else out of a fucking BOOK! You're all insane!" She stood there, her chest heaving, her body trembling with rage, and when Basta took a step toward her she actually snarled at him. "Don't TOUCH me! You're a monster, you're all monsters! Just stay the hell away from me!"

She backed up another step, her eyes wide and crazed, and screeched when she felt two strong arms wrap around her from behind and lift her into the air. She could feel a broad chest pressed against her back, and no matter how hard she flailed the man's grip never loosened.

"She still not behaving herself, Basta?" Kel twitched, recognizing Flatnose's voice, and squeaked when he tightened his grip around her chest. "How about I teach her a lesson? I do still owe her for that stunt she pulled last night." Kel gasped as his arms closed tighter around her, and suddenly she couldn't draw breath. She kept squirming, trying to free herself, but her struggles grew feebler and feebler as she started to run out of air. Flatnose chuckled in her ear. "Getting tired, girl? Come on, where's that wildcat who attacked me?" Kel kept trying to tug herself free until black spots began dancing across her vision, but just before she lost consciousness Flatnose released her. She fell to the ground in a dazed heap, her head spinning as oxygen rushed back to her brain, and Basta slung her over his shoulder.

"That's enough," he said, glaring at Flatnose before continuing to Capricorn's house. "Capricorn wants her in good condition to read, and I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate you nearly squeezing the life out of her!" Kel flopped limply as Basta carried her up to the steps, and she heard Flatnose chuckle.

"Well she's quieter now, isn't she? And anyway, the boss sent me to get you. He's got a job for you in town, something about collecting on another debt." Kel could feel Basta chuckle as he opened Capricorn's front door, and the old musty scent of many years washed over her.

"It's probably that shopkeeper again. He just doesn't understand that things are working differently now that we're here. Maybe this time I should package up some snakes and leave them outside his children's bedroom window. That'll show him how serious we are." Flatnose smirked, stopping just outside the door.

"That usually does the trick. Bring the girl upstairs and then go to Capricorn, he was getting impatient. Fabian's gonna be guarding her for the next few hours, so he needs the key to her room."

Basta grunted in assent, settling Kel better on his shoulder, and stepped inside the dark house. He shut the door behind him, shutting out the only source of natural light, and Kel blinked as her eyes took a few seconds to adjust. She had fully recovered from Flatnose's bear hug at this point, but decided that it would be better for her to allow Basta to carry her back to her room rather than causing a scene and bringing more men running to subdue her. The knowledge that she would some have time alone in her room to sit and think and absorb what had happened to her had lifted her spirits, and that made it easier to simply hang limp on Basta's shoulder as he hefted her up the stairs and up to the door to her room. There was a boy standing outside it with a pistol on his hip, he couldn't have been more than twenty-five, and he leered at Kel as Basta stepped through the door and closed it behind them.

He stepped over to the bed and dropped her unceremoniously down on it, stepping back and crossing his arms, and Kel pushed herself into a sitting position with a groan. Her entire body was sore, her shoulder had started throbbing once more, and thanks to Flatnose she now had a headache to deal with on top of everything that had already happened. She just let herself relax into the mattress beneath her, staring at Basta with a combination of exasperation and resignation, and saw his eyebrows draw together in a frown.

"So," he said, leaning against the closed door. "It looks like I'll be gone for a day or so."

Kel raised an eyebrow, wondering where this was going. "Yeah, so? Am I expected to care? That just means there'll be some other goon watching me, right?"

Basta's frown deepened, and Kel saw his jaw muscles clench. She knew it was stupid to be baiting Basta, but she just couldn't help it. She was so sick and tired of this whole place, and all she wanted to do was sleep so she wouldn't have to think about the present or the future. However, she couldn't do that until Basta left, so the faster she could get him out of her room the better. She swung her legs up onto the bed slowly, wincing as her back muscles flexed and stretched the skin of her shoulder, and settled herself on the mattress as best she could. "Why don't you just run along and do your oh so important mission? I'm sure threatening children is much less cowardly than torturing girls."

Basta practically growled, his fingers digging into the sleeves of his black jacket, and Kel had to bite her lip to keep from smirking. "Do you at least get something out of this deal? How does that work? Is it like a commission? One dollar for every child you frighten? Or maybe it's—"

"That's enough!" Basta lunged forward, his knife out of his belt and shoved right up into Kel's face. His hand was shaking with rage, and the tip of the blade was mere centimeters from the end of her nose. "You don't get it, do you? I'm the only one here who cares at all, princess. I want to keep you safe!"

Kel blinked, too scared to react any other way. "And why's that?" she whispered, her eyes fixed on the blade of the knife and her lips trembling. "Your boss doesn't seem to care whether I get hurt, and last night you didn't either. Why would I ever believe you care about what happens to me?"

This time it was Basta's turn to smirk, and Kel could see some of the anger leave him. "Well for one thing, there are some interesting positions that I don't think you could handle if you weren't in good condition." Kel practically started breathing fire at that comment, but before she could open her mouth Basta spoke again. "And besides that, I protect what's mine. I found you, I brought you here, and Capricorn gave me credit for your capture. That means you belong to me." He stood, wiping the blade of his knife on his jacket before replacing it in his belt. "And I don't like when other people break my things."

Kel sat there openmouthed as Basta walked to the door, struck dumb by Basta's response. He turned the knob but paused before leaving the room, looking over his shoulder with a serious expression on his face. "You better start picking your enemies, girl. There are those here who would protect you..." He opened the door wide and turned away. "... and those who would destroy you. Recognizing the two may just save you from being put through hell."

And with that he was gone, leaving behind only the faintest scent of mint and a vast silence filled with questions.


	5. Settling In

Kel breathed out slowly, clutching her shirt in a white-knuckled grip and trying in vain to slow the frantic beating of her heart. She couldn't believe what she had just heard, and honestly would love to be able to simply forget Basta had ever spoken, but the implications of his words were too important to ignore. She hadn't fully realized the social structure in the village, mostly because she was too busy crying or being terrified out of her mind, but Basta's little speech had made a few things clear.

She had known on some level that finding her would be a special treat for whoever did the catching, since she was so valuable to Capricorn, but she hadn't given it much thought beyond that. Now, after hearing what Basta had said, she realized that her safety could very well have depended on who exactly got credit for her capture. She tried to imagine how last night would have gone if Cockerell had been the one to get the credit, and her face blanched.

She shuddered at the thought of him watching her while she slept, or seeing her with her shirt off, or touching her bare skin to treat her burn. Kel had no doubt that the sadistic henchman would have had no qualms about taking advantage of her while she was injured, no matter what Capricorn said, and last night would have turned out very differently.

She nearly gagged at the thought, and wondered why Basta hadn't done the same. She knew that he enjoyed pain and violence, as evidenced by his eagerness to threaten a harmless shopkeeper and his children and the moment when he had wished he could torture and kill Fenoglio, and yet he hadn't raped her or even groped her during the hours they were alone in a _bedroom_ together, of all places. It would have been easy for him to do so, she knew. He was a strong man, able to easily lift and carry her up two flights of stairs without breaking a sweat, and it would have been the simplest thing in the world to simply hold her down and-

Kel flinched, unwilling to follow that line of thinking. She pulled her knees to her chest and rested her chin on them, staring out at the midday sun streaming through the window. So why hadn't he done so? Simply taken what he wanted and left her broken? She certainly wouldn't have been making any arguments again for fear of receiving more of the same treatment, and Kel knew Basta wanted her from the significant glances and lewd comments he had been throwing her way since she arrived.

Kel frowned, puzzling it out. Basta was a murderer, of that she had no doubt, he blindly followed Capricorn's every word as though it came from the lips of God, and he enjoyed intimidating the people around him. She could recognize that the crimes he had committed were a result of his hero-worship of Capricorn, since it was clear he had been recruited to this band at a very young age and most likely brainwashed by the man he now probably saw as a replacement father, and of course that would have been the reason why he hadn't spoken out against her torture the night before. She had seen a flicker of unease on his face just before he had restrained her, and she knew he regretted what had been done to her, but not enough to turn away from his master. There was no excuse for what he had done, and she would never forget or forgive his inaction as long as she had breath in her body, but at least she was starting to get a grip on his motives.

The intimidation was trickier, but she believed she could figure out where that came from as well. Because he had been adopted into this harsh and violent life at such a young age, Basta had needed some way to make a name for himself. Performing any act of violence ordered of him had most likely been the starting point, turning him into a cruel man with no qualms about inflicting pain and suffering, but after he had built a reputation he began to enjoy feeling powerful. For a small boy among rough men who most likely beat him more often than they praised him, fear would have been more satisfying than respect. He now lived to see fear on other people's faces, because it let him know that he was the one with the power. He would never be helpless and afraid again, not as long as he had his knife and his attitude and could make people bow to him through sheer terror.

Maybe that was it, Kel thought, starting to understand what might have made Basta show her mercy last night when he was about to carve up her face. It could have been that he looked down at her and saw the child he had been reflected in her eyes, that same naked fear that would have been so familiar reminding him what it was like to be mistreated and terrified.

Kel sighed, leaning forward on the bed and rubbing her eyes. Figuring out Basta's motives was supposed to make everything easier, but instead it seemed like she had just gotten herself more confused. She was supposed to hate her kidnappers, but now there was a little blossom of pity blooming in her chest whenever she thought of Basta. She could relate to growing up without parents and craving attention, and every time she pictured his face all she saw now was loneliness.

Kel groaned, throwing herself face-first onto the mattress and staring at the wall above her headboard. She was a prisoner, branded and locked away for whatever purpose her sadistic "owner" thought up next, her only protector was an equally twisted henchman who had threatened her multiple times, and she knew that there were at least half a dozen men within the compound who would rape her in a heartbeat if they got the chance. She clenched her eyes shut, staring into the blackness and just trying to wrap her head around the insane shift toward the bizarre that her life had taken in the last two days.

"What am I going to do?" She murmured, crossing her arms under her chin while keeping her eyes closed. "I can't escape, I can't communicate with anyone, I can't even leave this room." Kel could feel the warmth of the sun on her back as it filtered down onto the bed, and got up with a groan to walk over to the window. She looked out over the courtyard, wrapping arms around her ribcage and watching the men and women going about their lives in this hellhole.

She saw the black jackets lounging in the doorways of the buildings, flicking cigarette butts at passing maids and stray cats while laughing, she saw the maids scurrying around like mice trying to stay out of the way of the men, and even saw a few young boys dashing around to different buildings. Her lips curled with disgust at the thought of children being recruited for this terrible life, and assumed the boys were simply running errands for the men, delivering messages and the like. It seemed as though the black jackets really were the only ones who could be completely relaxed in this place, secure in Capricorn's power and their own places under his protection.

Kel quickly looked away from the men, the sight of their uniforms making her sick to her stomach. She doubted any of them had much humanity left in their hearts after the depraved acts she was sure all of them had committed throughout their service to Capricorn, and could tell that appealing to their better natures was out of the question.

She looked up at the surrounding forest instead, scanning the trees and brush looking for any kind of weak spot. Unfortunately Capricorn had apparently focused on fortifying his makeshift village right after he settled down, because the entire compound was surrounded by a ten-foot high chain link fence with one end left open that led to the parking lot and the main road. Kel assumed she hadn't been able to see it last night because it blended in so well to the woods, but now in the midday sun it gleamed bright silver in those places where tangling vines hadn't taken hold.

Although that fence was the extent of the fortifications in the village, Kel knew it would be enough to keep her in. Not only would she never be able to scale it before one of the black jackets could grab her and yank her down, she couldn't even get out of Capricorn's house because she was under guard constantly. Add in the constant patrols, the groups of men just hanging around every building, and the massive floodlights installed on the sides of the houses, and her chances of escape dropped into the single digits.

"So how am I going to get out of here?" Kel muttered, walking over to the other side of the room and crossing her arms behind her back. She scanned the bureau in front of her, opening a couple of the drawers and rifling through them, and began pulling out a few promising shirts and skirts that she could change into if necessary and tossing them on the bed, even managing to find a few clean pairs of underwear that were her size. She continued to plan as she did so, tracing paths through the buildings that she could remember, trying to recall how far they had traveled from her home and how long it would take to get to the nearest town, brainstorming ways to get messages to the other reader, Darius, or get more time with Fenoglio. Unfortunately, she couldn't remember the route they had taken, there didn't seem to be any well-hidden areas of the village, and she had no way of contacting anyone unless she could somehow gain access to one of the maids. Until that happened she was completely cut off from anyone and everyone who could possibly aid her in her escape.

She could feel the knot in her chest tightening further and further as she kept running into dead ends, and her hands began to shake as they pawed through the clothing in the dresser. Finally she just had to stop, leaning against the bureau and fighting to hold back her sobs, but when she lifted her head she stopped crying and froze.

Hanging right in front of her was mirror, hung on the wall at head height above the dresser, and she stared at her reflection in dismay. Her hair was dirty and tangled from being grabbed by so many hands, slept on, and shoved in the dirt, and her eyes stared out from behind the lank curtain with a hopelessness that took her breath away. Her eyes were red-rimmed from crying, there was a deep purple bruise stretching across the right side of her face where Capricorn had hit her the night before, and she could already see the bruises forming on her arms and legs from being tossed around by Basta and Flatnose. She reached up with shaking hands and touched her face gingerly, wincing at the dull ache that pounded through her cheek as her fingers brushed the bruise.

"I hate him," she gritted from between clenched teeth. "Capricorn." Just saying his name made her shudder with fear, and that in turn made her even more furious. How dare he strike such terror into her heart after less than twenty-four hours? She spun away from the mirror and began pacing back and forth across her floor, needing something to occupy her mind, and felt her thoughts slowly simmering and becoming black with rage. She had finally met evil, and it had utterly defeated her.

She hadn't expected anything like what had happened the night before, probably from reading so many fantasy novels. She had always pictured evil as contained, working from within a code of conduct created by the authors to prevent their books from becoming too violent and unpleasant for their readers, but Capricorn wasn't like that. He had slipped out from between the pages of a book that clearly didn't have the same qualms about giving its villains free reign to do as they please, and now Kel was the one who had to suffer for it. She wished she knew what twisted mind had come up with that monster so she could scream in their face. She'd make sure that person never picked up a pencil again; she'd make them face Capricorn and see how they liked it; she'd-

Kel exhaled angrily, rubbing her hands over her face and trying to calm herself down. She had to be rational. Anger would do nothing but distract her from opportunities to gather information, and she had to be prepared at all times. She just had to be patient. And wait. Kel sighed, preparing herself for a long, boring day.

The hours crept by, dragging on while the day never seemed to advance. Twice food was delivered, but it was always the boy at the door who actually brought it into the room, never a maid that she could talk to. She could hear them murmuring in the corridor so she knew they were there, but they always delivered the food and scurried off before she even saw their faces.

It was delicious food, and she doubted even the men ate as well as she was, but the knowledge that Capricorn was the one providing it for her utterly ruined any pleasure she could have taken from the dishes. She felt like a pet being fed from a golden dish; no matter how nice it looked, it was still proof of her captivity. Still, she was so hungry that she managed to polish off every last crumb, and then simply left the dishes sitting on the table for someone to collect later.

Eventually it began to get dark, and when the floodlights came on Kel drew the curtains and crawled under the covers of the bed. She felt the hard mattress beneath her and the starched, rough cotton sheets and sniffled. Everything was so unfamiliar and strange, and she wondered what her aunt was doing right then. Maybe she had called the police and they were combing the countryside right now looking for her. Or maybe she had seen Basta and Flatnose driving away in their van and gotten the license plate number. Even now the police were on their way to the village to save her. She rolled onto her side, curling into a ball and closing her eyes. Or maybe there was no one coming to find her, and her aunt was right now lying in bed alone crying, the phone resting on her bedside table, waiting to hear news from the police regarding her missing niece. Yes, that one sounded about right... Too emotionally drained to even cry, Kel merely closed her eyes and slipped off to sleep, praying for good dreams to chase the terrible nightmares away.

The next morning Kel awoke to muted light filtering through the curtains and the smell of fresh blueberry muffins, and for a moment the hominess of the scene distracted her from her situation. She threw her legs over the side of the bed, rubbing her eyes and yawning, and smiled sleepily as she bit into a muffin still warm from the oven. She chewed placidly for a moment, lost in blissful contentment, when all of a sudden reality came crashing back. The muffin turned to clay in her mouth, utterly tasteless, and she doubled over as though she had been struck.

Gripping the table for support, Kel swallowed the food in her mouth and took a few deep, calming breaths. She could deal with this. She could. She just had to get through it day by day, and eventually she would escape and get back to her normal life, with school and boys and homework and stupid jealousies that didn't mean anything at all. Silly things with no weight in the real world, and a place where there were no life-threatening decisions to make and no sadistic maniacs who tortured college students.

Slowly Kel regained some measure of control over herself, placing the remains of her muffin back on the plate beside her and walking back to the bed. She sat there and dropped her head into her hands, letting out a sigh that somehow managed to encompass every single depressing thought running through her mind, and tried to decide what she was going to do that day. She didn't think she could stand another ten minutes of inaction, and decided that she needed a shower. A hot shower, preferably in a bathroom that locked from the inside, and she wanted it right then.

Kel stood up, setting her face into a determined scowl, and knocked on the door. It opened a crack, and she saw the same boy from yesterday still standing guard. She assumed he had been relieved for the night shift, since he still looked rested and refreshed, and flinched back when he leered at her.

"What can I get you, sweetheart?" Kel took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself.

"I want to take a shower," she blurted out, not sounding nearly as forceful as she had hoped, but the boy looked momentarily taken aback.

"A shower," he said with a sneer, and Kel blushed when his gaze traveled up and down her body. "I guess I could maybe work something out..."

"No!" she said, panic blooming in her chest. "Alone. In a private bathroom. With a lock on the door. Tell Capricorn," she shuddered at the name, her tongue feeling like it was going to shrivel and fall off as she said it, "that I need one."

The boy glared at her, clearly feeling cheated of a rare opportunity, but shut the door with a grunt that Kel took to mean yes. She heard him shuffle off down the hall, grumbling, and it wasn't until a few minutes later that he returned and opened her door wide.

"You have twenty minutes," he said, and he let her gather up a change of clothes before leading her to a door right next to the one that led to her bedroom. Pushing it open, he shoved her inside unceremoniously, and then winked at her with a smirk. "After that, I have permission to come in and get you myself."

Kel gulped as the door swung closed and latched, but felt some relief at the knowledge that she wouldn't be disturbed for those twenty minutes. Looking around the bathroom she could see that it was pretty basic, just a toilet, sink, and shower, and she quickly turned on the water to start it heating. She stripped her dirty jeans of with a sigh, feeling the fabric crinkle as caked-on dirt cracked and fell onto the spotless floor, and the borrowed peasant shirt followed soon after.

Peeling off her bra and underwear, Kel reached into the shower and moaned at the warm spray that met her fingers. She leapt under the water, luxuriating in this brief period of normalcy, and fell into the calming routine of lathering up and rinsing away all of the stress that had settled around her. For a few blissful minutes she could close her eyes and pretend she was back home with her aunt getting ready for the school day, and almost thought she heard the sound of her aunt humming one of her favorite songs. The only part of her shower that was marred by the taint of the village was the heaviness of the bandage still taped over her burn, but that Kel could ignore with a little effort. The reprieve was over far too soon, however, and Kel sighed with resignation as she turned off the water and groped around outside the stall for the towel she had seen when she entered.

After she had dried herself off Kel pulled on her own bra and the clean clothes she had taken from the other room. They felt refreshingly light and soft after living the last few days in the same disgusting pair of jeans, and just that simple fact helped make Kel feel a little more confident that things were going to turn out okay after all.

Just then the door swung open, and the boy guarding the door- Marcus? Fabio? It didn't really matter- stepped into the room and grabbed her upper arm.

'Come on, girl," he said with a leer. "The boss wants to see you." Kel's heart nearly stopped, all of her calm, happy thoughts being sucked into the black abyss of terror that yawned wide in her mind. What? She wasn't ready, and now Basta wasn't even there to-

Kel could have slapped herself. There to what? Stand back and do nothing? Or help torture her like he had the last time? She was falling for his line about protecting her hook line and sinker, and if she wasn't careful she might even start to trust him. Then not only would she be a prisoner in body, she would be a prisoner of her own emotions. She might not even want to escape if that ever happened.

The boy yanked her into the hallway and began leading her toward the staircase, dragging her up one more floor and down another hall to a plain black door on her left. Kel felt a shudder of unease travel through her as she stared at the black wood in front of her, and knew that the monster who had haunted her dreams the last two nights was waiting for her on the other side. The boy reached around her and knocked once, but judging by the bead of cold sweat trickling down his neck and under his collar as well as his expression, Kel could tell she wasn't the only one in the village afraid of Capricorn.

_Maybe I could use that to my advantage..._ she thought, already scrambling to come up with ways to manipulate the other younger black jackets by playing on their fears.

Just then she heard footsteps approaching them, and all schemes flew out of her mind as she felt herself start to shake. Her palms began sweating, the hairs on the nape of her neck stood on end, and as the footsteps came closer her heart began beating out a staccato rhythm against the inside of her ribcage. The boy had a tight grip on her arm, and Kel knew that if he hadn't been holding her she would have bolted down the hall as fast as her legs could carry her.

The door swung wide, and Kel nearly swallowed her tongue as her fear doubled.

"Well, well, well," Cockerell purred, leaning against the doorframe and leering into Kel's face. "What have we here? A little songbird fallen out of her nest? Such a shame." He leaned his sharp face nearer to hers, his grin widening. "And now there's no one here to protect her from the wolves, is there?" Before she could blink he had grabbed the front of her shirt and ripped her from her guard's grasp, dragging her into the room and slamming the door behind her.

Kel stood very still, quivering with fear and hyperaware of how Cockerell's hand moved to grip the back of her neck, and her gaze darted around the room. It was spacious, at least three times the size of her own, and the furniture was luxurious and beautiful. There was a four poster bed, a massive wardrobe, and a writing desk, but what drew Kel's attention was the large chair situated directly in front of the door that Capricorn was seated in.

There was only one other person in the room, and it was the magpie woman from two nights ago. She was kneeling by Capricorn's feet polishing his shoes, but when Kel entered the room she stood with a sniff and stalked past them. The door opened and closed quickly, and once the Magpie's footsteps had receded down the hallway Kel was alone with Cockerell and Capricorn. Kel couldn't help but stare at Capricorn, and noticed that he looked very much the same as he had two days ago. The dressing gown he was wearing was the same blood-red as his suit, and the color did nothing but wash out the rest of his features even more. He slowly rose from his seat and approached Kel, a smile curling on his lips as he drew nearer.

"I see you took advantage of my generous offer, girl. Wasn't it kind of me to allow you that brief moment of relaxation?" Kel merely fumed silently, unable to look away from his smug gaze. "I'm sure you appreciated feeling clean as well." He reached out to push some wet strands of hair from Kel's face, and she resisted the urge to snap at his fingers when they brushed her skin. Instead she held herself still, knowing that the man in front of her was like a cobra, constantly coiled and ready to strike at a moment's notice. She couldn't afford to lose her temper again.

Capricorn abruptly stepped back, and gestured to Cockerell. "Remove her shirt."

Cockerell let out a dark chuckle. "Whatever you say, boss." Kel yelped when she sensed Cockerell reaching for her and spun around to face him, cold fury transforming her face into a vicious mask.

"Don't you dare touch me," she snarled, backing away from Cockerell and his lecherous smile. "Stay away from me!" She saw Cockerell grin, his arms spread wide as through to corral a frightened animal, and nearly gagged when he ran his tongue over his teeth. There was an anticipatory gleam in his eyes, and she had barely a split second's notice before he lunged toward her. She tried to dodge his grasp, but he managed to latch onto one sleeve of her shirt and yank her into his arms.

She could feel his laughter rumbling through her, and when she felt his hands slide under her shirt it was as though there were snakes writhing over her skin. She felt dirty, soiled, and the feeling only intensified when he ripped her shirt off over her head in one smooth motion. She was still covered, thanks to her bra, but her face still flushed bright red when Cockerell grasped her upper arms in his hands and drew her right up against him.

"What now, boss?" Capricorn looked Kel over with a small smirk, walking in a circle around her and eyeing her up and down, and then made another gesture toward Cockerell.

"Turn her around and remove the bandage. I want to see if my message was clear enough last time we... talked" Kel sucked in a gasp as the bandage was ripped off, and hissed as cool air touched her burn with icy fingers. She allowed herself to be spun, hoping that once Capricorn was satisfied she could run back to her room and hide under the covers of her bed, and concentrated on staring very hard at her feet to the exclusion of all else.

She could hear Capricorn pacing behind her, and at one point she felt every hair on her body stand on end as he approached her back, but eventually he stopped moving and spoke. "Yes, it seems like I made a good first impression." Kel flinched. "Now it's time to find out if she learned anything from that experience."

Cockerell spun her back around to face Capricorn, and she looked up reluctantly to see him watching her with snake-like intensity. She shivered as a draft whipped around her, raising goose-bumps on her exposed skin, and heard Cockerell suck in a deep breath behind her. She blushed, unwilling to let herself contemplate the terrible thoughts running through his mind right then, and stiffened when Capricorn walked back to his chair and sat down to face her.

"Come here, girl," he ordered, and Kel breathed a sigh of relief when Cockerell released her. She went to pick up her shirt, but froze when Capricorn cleared his throat. Kel glanced up at him to see a smirk curving his lips once more. "No, not yet. You only get a reward once you do what I say. Now, come here." he pointed to a spot some five feet in front of his chair, and Kel slowly approached him. She was hesitant, worried about what was going to happen when she reached him, but was glad to at least be moving further from Cockerell. There was a simmering anger beneath her skin that continued to grow as she drew nearer to Capricorn, but eventually she was standing before him with her mouth set in a grim line.

"Now," he said, steepling his fingers and leaning forward in his chair, and Kel saw a strange flicker of sadistic pleasure enter his gaze. "You will kneel, bow your head, and call me master."

Kel twitched so violently she thought she would fall over, and for a moment her brain simply stopped working. Her every instinct was telling her to obey, avoid any more pain or hardship, but the rest of her reared up in fury at the thought of ever bowing to the maniac before her. She stood there a moment, struggling with her conflicting desires, and finally lifted her gaze to meet Capricorn's.

"Never," she ground out between clenched teeth, and was shocked to see Capricorn's grin widen. He leaned back in his chair as though getting ready for some sort of performance, and Kel was startled when a chuckle slipped from his lips.

"Oh, I was hoping you would say that. It would be a shame if you had broken so easily. Cockerell." He gestured his henchman forward, and Kel shuddered when he took hold of her once more. Capricorn placed one elbow on his chair, resting his chin in his palm, and studied Kel a moment. "You know," he said in a pleasant, almost conversational tone, "torture loses its appeal for me after a while. I just find a few methods that work so well there's really no point in experimenting anymore, and eventually I just don't see the point." His smile grew wider, and Kel winced at the knowledge that Capricorn truly _enjoyed_ what he had done to her and to Fenoglio. She had never met a true sadist before, and now one was staring her in the face.

"So many people hate me, both in our world and this one, and after a while it just isn't as satisfying to see that loathing on a person's face." His voice grew more intense then, and Kel knew they were coming to the point of this ramble. "Sometimes it's so much sweeter when you can make a person hate _themselves_. When you can turn them into something they can't stand to look at in the morning, well..." Capricorn closed his eyes and inhaled with obvious pleasure. "That's just the sweetest thing in the world."

"Girl," he said sharply, and despite herself Kel looked up and met his gaze. "You are a virgin, aren't you?" Kel's mouth dropped open in shock. Her face flushed so fast it was as though she had a sudden case of heat stroke, and she nearly got light-headed from the intense embarrassment that flooded her. She spluttered incoherently for a moment, unable to even dignify that with a witty retort, and that seemed to be enough for Capricorn. He smirked, falling back in his chair.

"Yes, I thought as much. That should make this so much easier." Kel stopped her spluttering and felt a flutter of apprehension start growing in her stomach, which only grew when Capricorn sent Cockerell a significant glance. "I happen to know of a few men in the village who would like nothing more than to, ah- get to know you, girl." Kel blanched, starting to get an inkling of where this was headed. "One of them being Cockerell here. So," he said, his smile disappearing altogether to be replaced by an expression of supreme satisfaction, "if you don't do as I demand, I will merely give Cockerell free rein to take whatever- liberties- he sees fit. Do you understand me?"

Kel's face drained of all color and she barely heard Cockerell's soft, disbelieving whistle from behind her. Her veins felt as though they had been pumped full of ice, her stomach nearly turned inside out from fear and disgust, and she would have collapsed to the floor if Cockerell hadn't tightened his grip on her arms.

"W- what?" she asked in a whisper, unable to fully comprehend what she had just heard. This had gone beyond the physical pain or twisted mind games she had been expecting, and instead was following a path of such depravity that Kel didn't even want to venture at the next possible outcomes. Never, in any of her most terrible nightmares, had she imagined Capricorn proposing such a terrible method of coercion. "You can't- you can't be serious? I mean- that's-"

Capricorn chuckled, a terrible sound that make Kel want to vomit right there at his feet. "Rape? No, no, no. I prefer to think of it as 'conditioning'. If you do as I say, I can continue to offer my generous protection from the men in the village. If not, well..." He sent a chilling smile at Kel, but it looked to her mind more like a beast baring its fangs. "You know what will happen. Now, do you remember my request? I'll give you a moment to consider your answer."

Kel twitched, glaring up at Capricorn with fury burning in her heart. _Caught between a rock and a hard place_, she thought, glancing back at Cockerell with a flutter of terror. He was simply staring at her hungrily, his gaze never wavering, and when he met her eyes she saw him wink at her. Kel looked back at the floor in front of her feet, shuddering. _What do I do? I hate myself either way, just for different reasons. So would I rather hate myself for being a coward, or for knowing that I allowed myself to be-_ Kel swallowed, unable to put it into words, even in her own mind. Finally she knew that she had to make a decision, before Capricorn took even that choice away from her, and once more raised her eyes to Capricorn sitting on his throne.

"I won't."


	6. The Darkness in a Heart

Sorry this has taken me so long, and I'm sorry it's so much shorter than the others _ I've had most of this written for a while, and I figured I owed you guys something after waiting so long :) **WARNING**: This chapter has non-con moments, so if you don't like reading about people being assaulted, don't read this! (Actually you may want to just stop reading this fic, because it's probably going to happen again...)

I own none of these characters, they all belong to Cornelia Funke!

Also: PLEASE REVIEW! :) It helps me stay motivated when I know people actually like my stories and want me to continue them ^_^

* * *

When he heard her words Capricorn's eyes widened slightly, and Kel saw his grin broaden before he twitched one finger in Cockerell's direction.

"You heard the girl," he said softly, never once taking his eyes off of Kel's pale face. "Why don't you try and convince her otherwise?" Kel shrieked when Cockerell spun her around, and she tugged wildly in an attempt to escape his grasp. His grip tightened painfully, and no matter how hard she struggled he continued to draw nearer and nearer. She could feel his breath on her face, see every imperfection on his skin, and stiffened with disgust as he pulled her right up against the length of his body. Cockerell ran his tongue over his teeth, laughing.

"Oh, by all means, keep fighting. You already know I like it." He shifted his hips, sending shudders of revulsion through Kel's entire body. "I think you want this, girl. This fight's an act, one you know I like. Admit it, and maybe I'll stop." He released one of her arms and tangled his hand in her hair, slamming his mouth to hers before she could open her mouth to protest.

Kel nearly gagged at the feeling of Cockerell's lips on hers, and as her stomach twisted into knots she knew that there was a dark stain spreading through her that would never really be erased. Her own skin felt too tight, and all she wanted to do was rip herself free and shed her memories as easily as she shed clothing. She tried to use her free arm to push Cockerell away, but his arms were strong, despite his bad leg. He simply wrapped one arm around her and tightened his grip. His lips shifted over hers, drawing forth more waves of disgust, and Kel was horrified to find tears springing to her eyes once more. She wanted desperately to be brave, but it was so hard when everything seemed so hopeless.

She felt Cockerell's hand slipping lower, tracing the curve of her waist, her hip, grabbing- Kel whimpered, unable to move an inch with his other hand still wrapped in her hair, and felt Cockerell chuckle. He kissed her again and again, nibbling, tasting, sucking, bruising her in his assault, and the stain continued to spread its dark wings in her heart. Tears were leaving salty tracks down her face as they dried when she finally heard Capricorn speak.

"That's enough. Perhaps she's learned her lesson now." Kel fell back with a gasp when Cockerell released her, and she was disgusted by the smug grin curving his lips as he slowly flexed his hands.

"Oh, girl, we're gonna have such fun, you and me..." Kel shuffled away from him in growing horror, unwilling to take her eyes off him for even a split second, but had to turn toward Capricorn when he cleared his throat.

"So, girl," he said, his own smile mirroring Cockerell's. "What do you say? Are you ready to do as I tell you? Or do you need a little more- persuading?" Kel twitched, her stomach churning in response, and as she thought about what had just happened she could feel her face crumple. Contemplating the things that had been done to her, she wanted to scrub herself inside and out to remove the taint on her soul, and tears leaked from the corners of her eyes as she imagined living with this disgust for the rest of her life.

Capricorn clapped with glee, leaning forward in his chain to see her better. "There, now! _That's_ what I wanted to see! Oh, the expression of agony on your face is just priceless; I knew there was something I was missing." Kel looked up at him with murder in her eyes, and Capricorn smiled like an indulgent parent.

"Now, now, you have your hobbies and I have mine," he purred, stepping down from his throne and coming so close Kel could feel his breath on her face. She still didn't dare move, unwilling to back any closer to Cockerell after what had just happened, and instead kept her furious gaze fixed firmly on Capricorn's sternum. She tried to force herself to look into Capricorn's face, but her nerves continued to fail her. Capricorn chose that moment to let out little chuckle, clasping his hands behind his back.

"Don't just stand there glaring at me, girl, I'm waiting for your answer." Despite his grin Kel could hear impatience creeping into Capricorn's voice, and gave herself a mental shake.

_You can do this, you can do this. Just don't think about what happened. You'll get through it, you have to stay strong; the worst they can do to you is-_

Kel nearly vomited when she contemplated the ways in which that sentence could end. She thought about what would happen if she refused again, glanced back at Cockerell, and felt as though every one of her intestines had just shriveled up and died. She could guess what her next punishment would be, and then there would be no going back. No recovering. She would be broken beyond repair, and she doubted even going back to her old life would put things back the way they were before this nightmare.

Finally she realized that no matter how brave she wanted to be, no matter how strong she thought she was, it all came down to a choice between two evils. So, feeling as though her tongue were made of lead instead of flesh, she fell to her knees with a thud and hung her head. "M-" she began, but her mouth just wouldn't cooperate. She licked her lips, steeling herself, could almost imagine her heart turning to rock in her chest as she spoke. "Master," she finally whispered, sick to her stomach. "Please. Please no more. I- I'll do what you want, just- no more."

Her mouth felt slimy, like some disgusting creature had crawled inside and slithered down her throat to nest in her heart, and Kel had to work hard to keep her breakfast in her stomach. She dropped her hands to the floor, her head still bowed, and heard Cockerell growl in disappointment from somewhere behind her. Kel couldn't help but feel a glimmer of satisfaction, glad that her humiliation had at least one upside, but flinched when she felt Capricorn place one hand on her head as though she were a dog kneeling at his feet. She bristled, nearly baring her teeth at the humiliating gesture, but heard Capricorn chuckle and press her head down until she was looking straight at his polished shoes.

"I wouldn't lose my temper if I were you, girl. After all, I still have Cockerell here to change your mind should you decide to disobey me again." Kel shuddered and decided that pushing her rage to the back of her mind was about as effective as trying to hold back an avalanche with her bare hands, but somehow managed to prevent herself from inflicting bodily harm on Capricorn. Instead she merely stayed where she was, crouched at Capricorn's feet like his pet, quivering with rage, while Capricorn ran his fingers through her hair absentmindedly.

"Cockerell," he said suddenly, clenching the hand that was tangled in Kel's hair and causing tears of pain to well up in her eyes, "go and fetch a book from Darius. I think it's time for our reader to give us another example of her prodigious skill."

Kel heard Cockerell shuffle in place a moment, and felt bile rise up in her throat as she realized what he wanted. Capricorn seemed to understand as well, because Kel heard him let out a chuckle. "Later Cockerell, if the girl can't learn to watch her tongue and mind her manners around me." Kel breathed out a sigh of relief when Capricorn released her and walked back to his chair, and simply remained where she was for fear of attracting his attention once more.

Cockerell sighed from somewhere behind her. "Yes, sir," he said in a grudging tone. "What kind of book should I get from that spineless idiot?"

"What else? I want more books with treasure. We didn't get nearly enough from Silvertongue the last time he was our guest, and I know our new reader will do just as well as he did." Kel saw Cockerell bow in Capricorn's direction before walking to the door, and just before he closed the door she met his gaze. He smirked, looking her up and down once as Kel flushed with humiliation, but then the door closed with a click and she was left alone with Capricorn.

Kel shivered and looked longingly at her shirt lying crumpled on the floor a few feet away, but it took her a few seconds to gather the courage to reach out and grab it. As soon as she had it in her hands she yanked it on, wrapping her arms around her ribcage and kneeling on the floor feeling numb. She couldn't believe that she had actually been hopeful this morning; that she had thought she would be brave and get some answers. Everything could change so suddenly, she thought. One minute she had been content in the shower, feeling warm and clean, and the next she had been dragged into this room and-

Kel gagged, bending over and vomiting as her insides writhed with disgust. Capricorn had been right about one thing, she thought with despair. She hated herself now. She couldn't believe she had let Cockerell do that to her, wondered why she hadn't fought back harder, tortured herself with thoughts of how his hands had felt as they- Kel's stomach heaved again, but this time there was nothing left to come up and she was left just panting as waves of revulsion pounded through her.

The worst part was that she could feel Capricorn's eyes on her, enjoying every second of her pain, and she looked up to see a smile on his pale lips. He crooked one finger at her, gesturing for her to come closer, and she got shakily to her feet. She wobbled once and felt the world spin around her before she shook her head and snapped everything back into focus.

"Come over here girl," she heard Capricorn say in a tone of supreme indifference. Kel glanced up at him once with fire in her eyes before hanging her head, and she shuffled over to the chair where he was seated. Because she was standing Kel was easily a foot taller than Capricorn, but somehow he still made her feel like she was four inches tall. Her throat was dry, her stomach still hadn't unknotted itself, and her knees were quivering like they were made of jello, but Kel managed to stand up straight in front of Capricorn's throne.

"Please, sit," Capricorn purred, gesturing to a wooden chair next to his own. Kel moved slowly over to it, glancing up at Capricorn every few seconds and flinching at any sign of movement, but then eased herself into the chair and sat perfectly still. "That's better, isn't it? Now, let's see if we can't do something about this mess." Kel saw him reach out and pull on a tassled cord hanging from the ceiling and assumed it set a bell ringing somewhere else in the house, because a knock came at the door not one minute later.

"Come in," Capricorn said, and the door swung open to reveal a maid standing there with her head bowed. Kel flinched at the sight of her, feeling horror rising up inside when she saw that this girl couldn't have been older than eighteen, and gasped when she saw the dark bruise around the girl's right eye. She started to rise from her chair, planning to go to the girl's aid, but froze when Capricorn laid a hand on her knee. She stopped cold, her flesh crawling from his touch, and she lowered herself back into her chair without taking her eyes off the girl now standing in the middle of the room.

Out of the corner of her eye Kel saw Capricorn smirk, and when his grip tightened on her knee she could feel his rings pressing into the bare skin of her leg. "Clean this up," he ordered, and the maid jumped. She pulled a rag out of one of the pockets of her dress and began mopping up the vomit on the floor, wrinkling her nose at the smell as she did so. Kel simply watched in despair, wishing there was something she could do but knowing that it was hopeless unless she could find some way to escape and bring back help.

Eventually the girl finished, holding the sodden rag between two fingers and getting to her feet, and she continued to stare straight at the floor as she waited to be dismissed. Capricorn did so with a wave of his hand, but Kel saw the girl look up once to shoot her a pitying gaze before she left and closed the door behind her.

Kel let out a breath when Capricorn released her, but flinched when he leaned back in his chair and looked sideways at her. "So," he purred, and Kel felt chills run down her spine. "Are you starting to understand how things work in my village? I understand you took a little trip to visit the writer we brought with us when we came to your lovely country." Kel sat up a little at that, her anger replacing some of her fear.

"Yeah, and I think you're a sadist," she said through gritted teeth, but instead of irritation all she got in response was a little chuckle.

"I'm flattered, girl. I work very hard to give that impression, and I would hate to think that all that effort had gone to waste." Kel glowered, sick to her stomach as she remembered what Fenoglio had looked like in his cell.

"So why did you leave? Why did you have to come here anyway?" She asked, staring at her knees. "Basta said that it had something to do with a fire-eater, Fenoglio, and the Silvertongue you had here before."

Capricorn turned the full force of his gaze on her then, his eyes narrowing as he examined her from head to toe. Kel sat as still as she could, terrified that she had just asked one too many questions, and flinched when Capricorn began speaking.

"I suppose there's no harm in telling you, it's not as though you'll be leaving here." Capricorn leaned back in his chair, staring off into space and clearly revisiting the memory of what had happened. "We settled down in a country called Italy, all rolling hills and small, isolated villages. It was perfect for our operations, and of course we already knew about Silvertongue from when he had read us out of that thrice-cursed book. We managed to find him and his daughter with the help of the fire-eater, Dustfinger, but then the three of them escaped. Eventually we captured Silvertongue's daughter, hoping to lure him in, but then we discovered that the little girl had inherited her father's skill." Kel shuddered at the thought of a child being held captive by this madman.

"I wanted her to read out an old friend of mine, but the writer managed to ruin everything somehow. My friend came out- wrong, powerless, and died almost immediately, and in the confusion Silvertongue and the fire-eater managed to grab his daughter and some old woman and escape." Kel could see his knuckles clenched so hard they were turning white, and shied away from Capricorn's growing temper. "Then Silvertongue somehow set the police on us, and we had to flee. I decided that going across an entire ocean might slow them down, and needed to find a new Silvertongue to help us really settle down. My reader now is almost useless for anything besides fetching books."

Capricorn suddenly reached out and took Kel's chin in his hand, turning her head to face him. He smiled, tightening his grip until it was painful. "And then I found you, my new wonderfully talented reader. You're going to do whatever I say, read whenever I tell you too, or your poor aunt will end up just like Fenoglio."

Kel blanched, picturing her aunt in that cell with all of those horrible wounds, and felt tears welling up in her eyes. Capricorn pulled her closer until their noses were nearly touching, and Kel could see herself reflected in those pale, grey eyes. "You're never getting out of here, girl. Better get used to that now, for I can find all manner of ways to make you forget about escape." Kel lowered her gaze, tears slipping down her cheeks as Capricorn released her, and heard the door creak open.


	7. There and Back Again

"Ah, Cockerell," Capricorn said, leaning forward in his seat. "You have another fine choice from our useless reader?" Cockerell chuckled, stepping forward and holding up a slim paperback.

"I do, sir. Darius picked it out special for the little witch." He raised the book in front of him, holding it out to Kel with a twisted smile on his face, and she reached for it with trembling fingers. She snatched it from Cockerell's grip as though his fingers were vipers, not willing to let any part of her linger near his grasping hands, and flinched when a rough chuckle escaped his lips.

She sat back in her seat with a shudder, clutching the book to her chest like a security blanket and wishing there was a window in this dark room that she could look through. Time had somehow lost meaning the moment she was dragged through the door of Capricorn's room, minutes and hours blurring together into an eternity of stomach-churning, gut-wrenching torment, and now she didn't even have a view of the sky to remind her there was a world outside the blood-red walls around her.

She shook her head, settling the book in her lap and looking down at the cover. Her heart nearly skipped a beat, and a snort of disbelieving laughter burst from her lips as she read the title, but she immediately cut it short and composed herself. She couldn't believe fate was throwing yet another curveball for her to recover from. There, sitting in her lap, was a paperback copy of the Hobbit; the book that had taken her mother and father away; the book that had led Capricorn right to her.

And yet... As she stroked the forest green cover for the first time since she was a child she felt a strange yearning to delve into the labyrinth of letters waiting for her.

She knew the story, of course, and had watched the animated movie many times, but had never wanted to face the reminder of her childhood terror before. That terror had come from the image of the blood-stained cover, so the thought of actively searching it out had never crossed her mind. She had contented herself with watching the movie and falling in love with the characters that way, and of course the Lord of the Rings had held no such fear for her. That book she had devoured, and for the next week or so she had been spouting off elf names whenever the opportunity arose.

But now, seeing the book sitting so innocently in her lap, she wanted to open the covers. She wanted to hear J.R.R. Tolkein's voice telling her about poor Mr. Baggins of Bag End, forced out of his hobbit-hole and dragged on an adventure. So she opened to the table of contents, scanning the chapter titles and looking for a promising place to start her search for treasure. She jumped right to the final chapters, knowing that the party didn't reach the dragon Smaug in Erebor until late in the book, and decided that 'Inside Information' looked promising. She flipped to the proper page and smiled when she read the first couple of lines. She was in the right place, having come right to the point when Bilbo was moving down into the mountain for the first time to see where the dragon lay. It was the work of seconds to find the page that described his descent, and she began reading from there.

"He was altogether alone. Soon he thought it was beginning to feel warm. 'Is that a kind of glow I seem to see coming right ahead down there?' he thought. It was."

Kel felt as though all of her stress was falling away, pushed aside by the story now flooding her body with light. This story was full of color and magic, and as the words spilled from her lips her heart grew lighter and lighter, despite the fact that for Bilbo the surroundings were getting darker. She felt the stale air of the tunnel into the bowels of Erebor swirling around her face, saw the red glow of dragon-fire and felt its heat, and a great feeling of anticipation grew in her chest.

Eventually Bilbo reached the cave and laid his eyes on the piles of gold and jewels in the dwarf hoard, but though Kel's voice spun images of them so real she felt she could reach out and let them spill through her fingers, nothing emerged from the pages of the book. She began to worry, somewhere in the part of her mind that wasn't lost in fantasy, about what would happen if she didn't manage to retrieve anything for Capricorn. She knew that she was coming to the end of this scene with the dragon, and decided that it was time to skip ahead. Wrenching herself out of the moment when Bilbo brought his golden cup back up to the dwarves, she flipped forward a few pages and dove into Bilbo's second encounter with Smaug.

"The sun was shining when he started, but it was as dark as night in the tunnel. The light from the door, almost closed, soon faded as he went down."

This time the story spilling forth was one of wit and cleverness, riddles and misdirection, and though there was no written mention of gold except in passing she could feel the piles lying deep around her. She hoped she could pull some through by concentrating as hard as she could on it, but despite her best effort she approached the end of the confrontation without a single gold coin falling to the floor. However, as she read about Bilbo slipping back into the shadows and throwing his parting shots at the dragon, she felt something else hovering in front of her.

It was small and cold, really a tiny thing when compared to the mounds of treasure around it, but she knew immediately what it was and felt a surge of hope fill her heart. She immediately focused all of her attention on that object that was dancing just on the periphery of the story's words, never mentioned but always present, and tried to imagine stretching out a mental arm and taking hold of it. She felt sweat dripping down her forehead and saw it fall onto the page, blurring some of the words as she continued to read. In the story Bilbo was retreating back up the tunnel, throwing his last words at Smaug, and Kel knew she had mere lines of text before the scene would shift and her chance would be gone.

She set her jaw, gritting out the words of the story, and her muscles clenched as she poured every ounce of willpower she had into taking hold of the thing so fixed in her mind. Her thoughts were focused solely on the small point of light she imagined in front of her, and finally, just before Bilbo rejoined the dwarves safely outside Erebor, she felt something cold settle in her palm. She quickly squashed the grin that wanted to steal over her face, and closed her fingers around the small gold Ring trapped in her hand.

She reached the end of the passage a moment later, and thankfully it was at that moment that Capricorn raised his hand and gestured for her to stop.

"Well that was disappointing, girl. Very disappointing." Kel felt a moment of fear, wondering what he was going to do to her, and cringed. Capricorn noticed and smirked, clasping his hands in his lap and leaning against the back of his chair. "No, I'm not going to punish you, not this time. I know you are inexperienced at using your gift, so this once I will be lenient."

"Although," he murmured, leaning across the arm of his chair and looking down on her, "if we continue running into these 'problems', I will enjoy resorting to alternative methods of persuasion. Perhaps, given enough time, I will be able to discover the secrets of your art. Wizards back in our world were loath to give up the source of their power, but I feel as though you will be much more... cooperative than they were. You can put the book away now." Kel closed the book obediently, nearly vibrating with suppressed joy, and glanced around the room. She couldn't even be worried about Capricorn's threat, not when the key to her escape was literally in the palm of her hand, and the thought of the Ring made her pause.

'Should I use it now?' she thought, judging how far away the door was and how difficult it would be to avoid Capricorn and Cockerell. 'They would never know what hit them!' Her lips twitched, imagining the looks of surprise that would be on their faces if she just disappeared in front of their eyes, and the fingers clutched around the Ring quivered. She almost had it on her finger, balancing on the end of her fingernail, but the expression on Capricorn's face as he stared at her made her pause.

'How fast could he respond?' she thought, and shifted the Ring back into the middle of her palm. She had seen Capricorn's speed before, his reflexes were good where she was concerned, and had no doubt that if she vanished into thin air the first thing he would do would be to grab for some part of her clothing or her hair. Chances were, he would get ahold of something and she would be trapped once more. Then her secret weapon would be useless, and the element of surprise would be gone. And even if she got away from Capricorn she would then have to get around Cockerell, and she didn't even know if the door was unlocked. No, she thought to herself, better to wait until I'm alone and then experiment with the Ring.

That brought another nasty thought to her mind, and it punctured the bubble of hope that had been growing. What if the Ring didn't even work in this world? Did its power come from the Dark Lord in Mordor, or did it have its own power? It was too big a risk when the price of failure would be the loss of her one chance at freedom. Instead she told herself that she would conceal the Ring until she could take uninterrupted time and come up with a better plan.

At that moment Capricorn cleared his throat and gestured to Cockerell. "Take the girl to her room, and bring the book back to Darius. After all, our reader won't need it anymore." Cockerell nodded, limping forward and grabbing Kel by the upper arm before she could squirm away. She felt shudders race down her spine at his touch, and saw Capricorn level a glare in Cockerell's direction. "Oh, and Cockerell," he said in a dangerously soft voice.

"Yes, sir?" Cockerell turned to his master, a little hint of unease in his eyes as Capricorn's snake-like gaze fell on him.

"You are not to touch the girl, is that understood? Take her to her room, nothing else, or I will skin you alive. She is off-limits to all of the men, and that includes you." Kel felt a bubble of relief for a split second before Capricorn's gaze latched onto her. "Threats like this one become ineffective if they are no longer a special kind of torture." He leaned right up close to her, smiling that terrible chilling smile. "I want you to dread disobeying me, and know that the moment you step out of line I can break you so completely you will not have a spirit left to resist with."

Kel's face drained of color, and she stumbled a little when Cockerell yanked her to her feet. Capricorn's last words had sent a sudden chill down her spine, despite the fact that she had the Ring of power sitting in her palm, and she knew then that her escape would have to be immediate. There was no telling what kind of horrors would be waiting for her come morning, and she couldn't risk staying long enough to find out.

She couldn't seem to tear her gaze from Capricorn as she was led away, wondering if this would be the last time she would be forced to stare into his gaunt face, and felt her stomach curl when he gave a little wave just before the door snapped shut. Finally she was outside in the hallway with only Cockerell for company, and although the man made her want to scrub her insides with bleach it was still slightly better than being in Capricorn's presence.

Cockerell didn't even look at her, and instead dragged her down the stairs to her room in silence. He was clearly stung by his master's last order, and Kel used his distraction to keep the Ring hidden while they walked. She felt anticipation growing again as they approached the door of her room, and it took all of her willpower to resist just slipping the ring on and making a run for it. Instead she followed meekly behind Cockerell until they reached the plain wooden door.

He reached out to unlock it, snatching The Hobbit from Kel's hands and shoving her into the empty bedroom. She stumbled forward and nearly fell onto the bed, catching herself on the bedpost and turning to glare at him. He shot her a glare in response that was equal parts hatred and twisted desire, making her shrink backwards, and pointed one finger at her. "You got lucky this time, girl, but one day the boss'll get tired of this threat and you'll be fair game for anyone who wants you." Kel blanched, feeling her stomach twist at the thought of all of the other men in the village she had seen leering at her. "And then," he continued, his lips twisting into a sick leer, "I'll be the first in line."

With that he pulled the door shut behind him, and Kel stayed perfectly still as she heard his footsteps retreating down the hallway. Her breathing gradually slowed as his footsteps retreated, and she fell onto the mattress with a sigh. Slowly Cockerell's steps faded into the distance, and when she heard him thumping down the stairs and toward the front door she lifted the Ring in front of her face. Her heart soared as she gazed at it, stroking its perfect golden surface with one finger, and she smiled.

My salvation, she thought with rising joy, and began to feel the darkness of the village lifting away from her. She could finally see a light at the end of the tunnel, an escape from the evil that permeated the very walls around her, and spun the Ring around between her fingertips. So what kind of powers does it have here? She studied the Ring, and felt a little chill steal over her as she felt a strange twisted energy pulsing through her fingers. I guess it's still dangerous, she sighed, but knew that she was going to use it anyway. She couldn't afford not to, no matter the cost.

So, with a deep breath, Kel lifted up the ring and slipped it gently onto her finger.


	8. All Things Have a Cost

Kel squeezed her eyes shut, held her breath, and waited a few seconds. She was afraid to look down at herself, afraid to be disappointed and have her hopes of escape crushed, but finally she cracked one eyelid and squinted down at her hand. Immediately she leapt off the bed, letting out a shriek of joy before clapping one hand to her mouth.

_Crap!_ she thought, backing against the wall and trying to slow her heartbeat, and looked around her in awe. The entire room was a soft grey, sort of misty and unfocused, and as she moved her body Kel could see drifting tendrils of what looked like smoke curling over her skin. She lifted a vase from the dresser, curious to see what would happen, and felt her lips curl into a grin as she saw the misty tendrils wrap themselves around the vase as well, rendering it as invisible as she was. She put it back on the table, seeing the ghostly fingers uncurl themselves slowly, but suddenly twitched when raised voices reached her ears. She moved to the door and pressed her ear to it, listening to footsteps making their way up the stairs, and heard Cockerell's voice ring out.

"Well what was that noise, then?! You were supposed to be standing guard at the door, you little brat, not stuffing your face down in the kitchens flirting with the maids! If anything happened to that girl, Capricorn will have your head!" Kel jumped back, her skin prickling with fear, and cowered beside the dresser.

There was no more time for her to prepare her plan of escape. If the Ring worked, the next few minutes could mean the difference between freedom and a lifetime of torture. If it didn't, chances are Cockerell would want an outlet for his anger; and Kel didn't think he would be worried about how Capricorn would punish him. If he was punished at all.

Kel wasn't stupid, she knew that Capricorn was only using this threat as a temporary bargaining chip, and eventually he would get bored waiting for her to bring it upon herself and would break her just for the fun of it. She squared her shoulders. That was why she had to get away. She couldn't delude herself into thinking that things would never get that bad. Good behavior would mean nothing to Capricorn. She leveled her gaze at the door, crouched down slightly as she prepared to run, and waited.

The door flew open barely five seconds later, and Cockerell burst into the room dragging the unfortunate guard by the collar. He looked around, breathing heavily, and Kel's heart soared when his gaze passed right over her. Her lips curved in a grin as Cockerell's face drained of color, and she struggled not to laugh as he spun around like a bear with a ring in its nose. She inched toward the open door, keeping her eyes fixed firmly on Cockerell as he looked frantically out the window and under the bed, and started to slide carefully past the young, unlucky guard standing in the doorway.

Just then the guard shifted, moving closer to Kel, and in panic she stumbled back against the door. Her shoulder collided with it, sending it crashing against the wall, and she froze in terror as Cockerell whipped his head around.

"What was that?" he snarled, his gaze trained on the hapless boy. The guard shook his head in bewilderment, looking straight at Kel without seeing her.

"I don't know," he murmured, looking a bit dazed. "The door just moved on its own..."

Cockerell snorted, turning back to the window, and Kel let out a sigh of relief. Unfortunately she only realized her mistake a moment later, when Cockerell snapped his head around once more and narrowed his gaze right at her, and she slapped her hands to her mouth. But at that point it was too late.

Cockerell's lips curved in a hungry grin. "Well, well, so the witch has been practicing. How'd you turn invisible, love?" The young guard paled, stumbling away from the door with a look of horror on his face, and Kel took that opportunity to leap out into the hallway. Cockerell heard her feet on the floor and snarled, lunging forward with an arm outstretched and nearly catching hold of her shirt. As it was he just barely brushed her sleeve with his fingertips, but it was enough for him to know she was there.

Kel began sprinting down the hallway, hearing Cockerell's footsteps close behind her, and flung herself down the stairs three at a time. She stumbled her way down to the landing, reaching out and yanking open the front door, but just before she could throw herself out into the bright sunlight she felt Cockerell's hand slam into her back. He paused for only a second, clearly surprised he had reached her in time, but then closed his fist on her shirt and held tight. Kel nearly screamed in rage and helplessness, and threw herself in every direction possible in an attempt to free herself.

It was no use, however, Cockerell's grip was too strong, and Kel felt her heart start racing. If she didn't get away soon, Cockerell would take her to Capricorn, and the punishment for attempting to escape would be unfathomable. She felt a scream building in her throat, but finally realized what she had to do. She continued to pull on the fabric of the shirt, but instead of trying to break Cockerell's grip she merely slipped out of the shirt and continued to pull on it in order to keep up the illusion that she was caught.

She stuck her foot out behind her, feeling for the ground outside the door with the tip of her shoe, and as soon as she did so she released her hold on the shirt and sent Cockerell flying backwards. A peal of laughter escaped her lips as she watched him fall to the floor in a heap, and before he could recover she bolted out of the doorway and into the courtyard.

Her bare feet left faint footprints in the dirt outside, and Kel sucked in a deep breath of fresh air as she began sprinting toward the parking lot. She heard Cockerell yelling from somewhere behind her, screaming at the men milling around, but of course none of them knew she was there.

"Catch her, you idiots! She's invisible, just look at the ground!" Kel saw a few of the men glance around in bewilderment, and glanced over her shoulder to see Cockerell limping as fast as he could after her. She dodged men left and right as she made her way out of the village and saw many of them blink in surprise as they felt her blow past them, but she made it all the way to the parking lot with little incident. The compound behind her was in chaos, the men having finally realized exactly what was happening, but Kel ignored their shouts and slowed down to a jog as she finally reached the road.

She could hear shouting from behind her, and turned to look back at the village. Men were running in every direction like blind men, their hands out in front of them as they searched for an invisible girl, and Cockerell was still fighting his way toward the parking lot. He was lashing out at any man unfortunate enough to get in his way, being buffeted from side to side as he limped across the courtyard. Kel suppressed a chuckle, leaning against a nearby tree and watching the hilarity.

After a minute or so everything calmed down and the men began searching in earnest, and Kel realized she would have to move. They had spread out in a search pattern and were covering every inch of the compound, and it was only a matter of time before they made it to her location. She looked around, glancing down the road that wound through the woods, and felt a moment of doubt. How was she going to get out of the village? As she stared through the shadowy trees, she realized there were a few major flaws in her plan.

Firstly, she didn't know how long the Ring would keep her invisible, or what kind of negative effects it would cause. It could drive her insane, or incapacitate her, or even just stop working at any moment. Not only that, but the men had keys to the cars, and would easily outdistance her if she tried to escape on foot. They could just set up a barricade a few miles down the road and force her into a trap, and there would be no way for her to stop them. Then, too, there was the problem of food. Kel had no idea how far the nearest house was, much less the nearest town, and she had no supplies at all. If she started walking without knowing how far she had to go, she could starve to death or collapse from dehydration before she made it halfway.

She glanced down at the ground and winced. Also, she was barefoot, and she had left her shirt behind in Cockerell's grip. She felt her heart start pounding, fear crowding in as the men continued their methodical search of the grounds. She looked left and right, striving to come up with a plan, and closed her eyes. _Think, think_, she told herself, racking her brain. She couldn't take any supplies with her, because they wouldn't turn invisible and would be a dead giveaway if she tried to take them out of the village. She also didn't think she could carry enough food and water for a multi-day journey, so walking seemed like it was no longer an option. Her gaze fell on the nearest car, and she felt a spark of hope. But what if she could steal one of the men's sets of keys?

She glanced around the village, taking note of the hall, Capricorn's house, and the other buildings for his high-ranking men, but finally decided that the barracks would be the most likely place for them to be kept. It wouldn't be practical for Capricorn to have all of the keys in his own house, because occasionally the men would have to run menial errands for things like food or ammunition. He wouldn't want to be bothered every time something like that came up, so there had to be keys left where the men could have easy access to them.

She began moving around the parking lot, hugging the edge of the woods and keeping her eyes trained on the men as they continued combing the village, and slowly made her way over to the ramshackle building squatting on the right hand side of the compound. She slunk past the trunks of trees, reminding herself with every step that the men wandering past couldn't see her but still feeling like there was someone watching her every move. When she reached the corner closest to the woods she flattened herself against the outside wall, her heart threatening to burst out of her chest. Men were prowling all around her, their arms outstretched and their eyes darting over every pebble, and she could hear her own breathing echoing in her ears. But when minutes passed and still no one had noticed her, Kel managed to make herself move.

She slunk over to one of the dirty windows and peered inside, letting out a sigh of relief when she saw that no one was inside. Clearly all of the men had been called outside to help with the search, and that would make her job significantly easier. She moved around the building, hugging the wall and stepping as lightly as she possibly could, and finally reached the door that faced the interior of the compound. Here she paused, realizing a glaring flaw in her plan. She had to get inside the building somehow, but a door swinging open on its own would draw the attention of every man currently prowling around the compound and get her caught before she could scream. Her heart leapt into her throat as she realized what she would have to do.

In order to get inside without attracting attention she would have to wait for one of the men to open the door and slip in behind them, which involved getting close enough to reach out and touch them. She blood froze at the thought of getting that close to any one of the murderers around her, but her thoughts were cut off when she saw two men walking towards the barracks. They were talking to each other under their breath, sneaking furtive glances at Cockerell as he continued shouting insults at the men still searching, and Kel heard their conversation as they moved closer.

The first man shot a dark glare in Cockerell's direction. "Lazy bastard. He loses Capricorn's precious reader, and now we're the ones having to pay for it. How does he expect us to find someone who's invisible?"

The second man shrugged, pushing his hand into his pockets and glancing over his shoulder at the frantic search continuing behind him. "No clue, but I'm not gonna spend the rest of the day waving my arms in the air and looking for footprints in the dirt."

The first man let out a bark of laughter and reached for the door, passing so close to Kel she could smell the faint whiff of kerosene on his clothes, and she took a slow, deep breath. She watched as he stepped into the barracks, and held herself in place as the second man began moving towards the door. She had to time this perfectly, and felt sweat dripping down her temples as the second man stepped past her. She saw him take hold of the door and moved right behind him, mirroring his steps with careful precision, and when he released the door behind him she held it open for a split second more and slipped through the opening with barely a whisper of sound to give her away.

She immediately pressed herself flat against the wall to her left and watched the men round the corner into the main building, and resisted the urge to collapse to the ground in relief. Instead she forced herself ahead, knowing that at any moment another one of the Black Jackets could come through the door and startle her into giving herself away, and peered around the corner at the long lines of cots stretching along the length of the building. A chest sat and the foot of each bed, presumably to hold each of the men's personal possessions, but other than that there were no other furnishings that she could see. The two men she had snuck in with were sitting on the edges of two of the cots, talking in low voices, and she crept slowly into the room warily. She couldn't tell how well-made the building was, and knew that the merest squeak from one of the floorboards could get her caught.

Because of this she decided to hug the walls, her back pressed flat against the rough boards, and after a cursory glance around she spotted a large section of wall with nails pounded into it and keys hanging off each of them. Kel's mouth curled into a grin as she began making her way slowly over to that side of the building, and as she got closer she could hear the men's conversation.

"I don't see what's so important about that girl, anyway," the first man said, leaning back on one arm with his face set in a frown. "Do you really believe that crap about her having magic powers?"

The second man wrinkled his nose and shrugged, glancing out the windows. "Who knows? But I'll tell you this; Grant was outside the hall that first night she got here and swears he saw flowers appear out of nothing as soon as she got that book in her hands. He got a beating when Cockerell caught him snooping around, but he still swears he saw it happen." He looked back at the other man and raised his eyebrows. "Who can say if it's true, but I've never known Grant to lie."

The first man whistled, sitting forward and resting his elbows on his knees. "Son of a bitch," he said, amazement plain in his voice. "Guess there's some stuff that just can't be explained, huh? So the girl does have these- 'powers'." He shook his head, and as Kel got closer to the rows of keys she could hear him let out a sigh. "Jesus Keith, how did I get mixed up in this stuff?"

Keith laughed. "Same way I did, Scott, you needed cash and any job would do. Capricorn's got plenty of recruiters out looking for desperate guys like us, and God knows they're not in short supply."

Kel heard Scott make some noise of agreement but didn't catch the next thing he said, because it was at that moment that she reached the far wall and stood facing the dozens of sets of keys hung there. Through the open windows she could still hear Cockerell swearing and yelling at the men searching the compound and parking lot, and the things he was saying made her blood run cold.

"If I get my hands on that little witch, I'll wring her neck! Hear that, girl?! I don't care how special your powers are, I'll beat you within an inch of your life! You'll be begging me to stop before I'm through with you!" Kel shuddered, closing her eyes as memories of her ordeal in Capricorn's room rose to the surface of her mind. She stood there a moment, barely breathing, and heard Cockerell's voice fade slowly as he limped to the other end of the compound. Only when it was almost inaudible did she reopen her eyes.

She took a deep breath, glancing over her shoulder once to make sure Scott and Keith hadn't moved, and reached out a trembling hand towards the wall of keys. Gently, so as not to make a sound, she closed the tips of her fingers over the key ring and watched as the misty trails of smoke enveloped it, and only when it was firmly encased did she lift it gingerly from the nail it had been hung on. The keys lifted up with barely a whisper of sound, and she clutched them tightly in her fist so they wouldn't jingle as she walked.

_'Now for the hard part,'_ she thought with an apprehensive sigh, and crept slowly back to the door. She stood there staring at it for a moment and listened as hard as she could for any heavy footsteps right outside the door. She could hear voices in the distance, too far away to notice the door to the barracks opening wide enough for a girl to slip through, and when she was sure there was no one directly outside the door, she gently turned the handle.

Pushing it open a tiny bit, she peered outside. Sure enough, all of the men seemed to have regrouped at the far end of the compound and were searching that area, leaving her free and clear if she could just find the car that belonged to the set of keys in her hand. She opened the door a little further, slipping out through the crack and closing the door silently behind her, and made her way around the building and back to the parking lot. The ground was hot from the midday sun, but shadows were already making their slow trek across the dirt.

Kel winced as the stones bit once more into the pads of her feet, but made it to the parking lot with little issue. She looked down at the keys in her hand, seeing the Ford insignia and glancing over the ten or so cars parked around her. Out of those only four were Fords, and she didn't think it would take her that long to try the front doors of each of the cars with the key. The only little hiccup was the man she could see prowling between the vehicles looking for her, and she held back a curse.

Fortunately the first Ford was nearby, so she quickly slunk over and tried the key; but she frowned when it wouldn't turn. Looking around, she saw that the second Ford was only a dozen feet away, and the lone guard was making his way slowly in the opposite direction. She made it over as fast as she could, slipping the key in the lock, but this one didn't turn either.

She could feel her heart starting to beat a little faster, and when she peered around the car she saw that not only was the third Ford sitting right next to the guard, he had stopped to smoke a cigarette while leaning on the hood. _Perfect_, she thought, goose bumps rising on her arms as she crept closer, and had to stop just before reaching the car. She closed her eyes, took a couple of deep breaths, and swung around the back end of the vehicle she was hiding behind. She had a moment to zero in on the door of the car she needed to reach before she ran into something warm and breathing, and fell to the ground with a thud.

She felt her stomach leap into her throat as she looked up into the face of the guard who had clearly finished his cigarette break, and could tell he was baffled.

_Please don't realize what just happened_, she prayed, but at that moment that she saw the guard's face light up with glee. Her heart sank like a stone, and she rolled to one side when he lunged for her.

"Hey!" he screamed, arms outstretched as he continued to search for her. "She's over here, come quickly!" Kel sucked in a deep breath and looked across the compound to see, of all people, Cockerell raise his head and spot the guard. She whimpered at the expression that crossed his face, and when he started limping towards them she sprang for the door of the Ford beside her. The keys rattled in her hand as she fumbled with them, but finally she got the key in the lock and sobbed in relief when she felt it turn smoothly. She wrenched open the door, ready to hop inside, when she felt the guard's hand clamp around her arm.

"Gotcha," he breathed, and yanked her away from the car. Kel squirmed frantically, the arm holding the keys still free, but the man was too strong.

"Please," she moaned, looking over the man's shoulder at Cockerell and flinching when she saw that he was maybe thirty seconds away. "Don't do this, just let me go, please!"

The guard laughed and tightened his grip. "Not a chance, precious, I think Capricorn's gonna be pretty grateful to me for catching you. So grateful, he might just let me take you back to the barracks and-" he stopped short, his words cut off with a quiet gurgle, and Kel looked up in horror at the keys clenched in her fist that were now buried in his throat. "Wha-" the guard looked at her in horror, releasing her and stumbling backward.

Kel pulled her hand back, choking back a cry at the sight of blood making trails down her arm, but forced herself to jump into the driver's seat of the car and turn on the ignition. Her stomach heaved as she felt the key, slippery with blood, turn beneath her fingers, but she ignored it and slammed the door shut. The engine of the car roared to life as she shifted into drive and pressed on the gas, and the tires kicked up a cloud of dust and gravel as she peeled out towards the road.

Cockerell was visible in her rearview window, shaking his fist and screaming at the top of his lungs, but as she sped out of the parking lot and into the darkening forest it stopped mattering. She could feel the blood on her hands beginning to dry and grow tacky, sticking to the steering wheel as she peeled off down the road, but at that moment all she could think was that she was finally free.


End file.
